Their Naval Base
by All that is good51
Summary: Replacement story for Beyond Dawn's Horizon. The story is set in a setting where an immortal and God-like Naruto living a normal life with the Ship Girls of a certain naval base. Will be probably following the standard daily life type story with conflicts solved quickly and efficiently. Currently no pairing, slow updates as usual and will be put to T rating for safety.
1. His arrival

**Alright, I promised you a new story to replace Beyond dawn's horizon.**

**So, I give you this. Did you read the description already? Good, then you are well informed about how this will go.**

* * *

It was with a jerk of a foot that he was startled awake. For a brief moment, the man wondered where he was at. With the widening of his eyes, he remembered that he was in the middle of a flight inside an airplane. He took several but subtle glances around, seeing the two seats beside him and the many rows of seats in front and behind him. The man blinked several more times just to get the haziness out from his eyes, falling asleep and waking up suddenly had always given him this kind of aftereffect.

He is currently in the middle of his flight, an airplane travelling on the air from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Tokyo, Japan, the capital city of Japan itself. The atmosphere inside the plane was best described to be quiet, with people sleeping or dozing off in their MP3 players. The two people seated beside him are both asleep and thankfully, none of them were leaning towards him.

The man takes a moment to comb his wild golden mane with his hands backwards, he found the moment to be a perfect opportunity to stretch his back and aching limbs. He also stifled a small yawn that barely escaped his mouth and his eyes started to water but it was quickly erased with a smooth swipe of his sleeves.

The reflection of his azure blue eyes were available on the viewing mirror, he took a small glance from where he was at toward outside; even if he could not really lean due to the person sleeping next to it. He can see the blue ocean as well as the cloud covering it, hindering his view. The sky is sunny clear, no signs of bad weather happening at all.

A small but resounding ding filled the air, quickly grabbing his attention. Then the female voice of the flight attendant comes through the speakers. "We are two hours away from our destination; seatbelts are to remain buckled at all times." Then the voice ends.

For the man, he could only care less whether or not he used the seatbelts or not. Even if this whole plane was to crash or sink into the sea, he would still survive. Sighing, the blonde male slumped backwards into his seat and looked around the quiet scenery of the plane. It seemed so peaceful with all the people sleeping and dozing off. He had business in Tokyo and while it is private, it might not be as peaceful as this. The situation is so peaceful that he could fall asleep again, which what would have happened if it was not for this.

His closing eyes quickly snapped open. Then, a few milliseconds later, the cockpit of the plane exploded into flames; followed by the cabin and the whole plane entirely.

It happened so fast, so very fast. He could not even tell what hit them. But now, he felt his body falling from great heights and the flaming debris of airplane parts were cascading quickly alongside him and whatever chunk of burnt human flesh. Of course, he was not entirely in tact too. His body was covered in four degree burns and his business suit was completely burnt from the explosion and he was currently missing a leg and arm, both of them were his right ones.

"Tch…! What the hell…?!" he can worry about his limbs later, right now, he must try to not get hit by any falling debris or whatsoever. Even though his body parts may regenerate, it will still hurt like hell if were to get hit by a flaming debris. He make sharp of his body by keeping his straight so that he could increase his falling speed, it is better to hit water first than having to handle with whatever parts of the plane that made its way first.

After approximately half a minute later, he hits the ocean's surface. The sensation of water hitting his face hard wakes whatever instincts that were left in him. His first reaction was to resurface, because having to deal with water getting into his eyes was a troublesome thing to do. Now that all of his body had completely regenerated, he can swim up towards the surface perfectly fine. He breathed in air, even if there was no need to do so in the first due to his system converting water particles into oxygen with a little help of something called chakra. Sick thing is, chakra can be used to break down particles in an element. Something very, very neat.

"Aw man… Murphy's law just had to happen didn't it?!" he shouted angrily to no one in particular. "Just what the fuck did we hit anyway!?" the blonde looked around angrily, finding nothing on sight. He then touched the water with his hand as if it was a solid object. He lifted himself up to his feet, standing on the surface of the water with his entire body wet. He resumed his earlier activity to look around, unfortunately, he was unable to spot anything. However, after a few more seconds of vigilant watch; he saw something… more like things approaching towards his direction coming from the distant horizon.

Thanks to his enhanced field of view, he could make up the first thing he saw. It was… a giant, well not really that big, but giant metallic whale like thing with a set of broken teeth in the front. There was not just one, in fact, there were six of them. He did his first action, which was to hop onto a piece of floating debris to avoid anything seeing him standing on water like a needle in a pincushion. Those things are definitely not ships… so, what are they?

Whatever they are, it seems that they are not friendly in the slightest. His azure eyes narrowed themselves to a high level of danger and at the same moment, the clear skies changed into that of a grey and thundery one. Lighting cackles and the sound of thunder breaks through the strongest wind. The waves picked up, yet he was able to keep on his makeshift raft. Right now, it was safe to assume that those… monstrosities were the ones responsible for the sudden explosion of the plane he was on moments ago. He could summon the thunder God Himself and do some electric fishing by frying whatever live there is under this ocean along with the incoming group of six metal monsters.

But of course, he was not really going to do that. He was going to do this:

"**Suiton: Uzumaki." **

The sound of cackling thunderstorms was the accompanied by the picking up of wind, the water in front of the blonde and the incoming group of metal things began to spin; causing a small whirlpool to form. Said whirlpool kept on spinning, causing it to increase in diameter and speed. The sight was just like a scene from a standard apocalypse movie, it is too bad that they did not get to use to real thing when making those scenes. It was basically a sudden and deadly storm, the approaching metal like ship things got sucked into the whirpool; just like when someone were to press the flush handle on a toilet seat. The five hunks of metals were still spinning down the vortex, and it looks like they were not regular ships after all. The man was not sure if there were even people manning those things.

The man who was still on the piece of debris raised his hand, and then he closed his palm, turning it into a fist. At the same time, the whirlpool exploded unnaturally. It was as if the sea decided to explode on its own, using high water pressure to destroy those metal chunks to nothing but bits and pieces of smaller metals. The storm died down, followed by the wind and the spinning whirlpool itself. The grey clouds began to disappear seemingly so suddenly and the blonde man was still sitting on the piece of airplane material.

"Now that took a quite a lot of chakra than what I expected…" the man muttered to himself. He then released a huge bottled sigh, while laying his back on the floating piece of debris. "Whew… now how am I going to go and reach shore like this…" he could just walk and get to shore but the chances of people seeing him would be possible. Or he could teleport right into Tokyo, but he was currently not in the mood of doing anything right now just because he had just experienced one hell of a flight. All of his luggage is gone and he did not have any storage seals installed at the moment, just great… well, probably saying that he did not have at least one storage seal installed was a lie. He had one installed, but its content will not provide him with a passport, extra clothes and food.

He only placed his kunai, a handgun and three extra magazines just to go along with it. Why a handgun one might ask, when he could have just dealt with anyone on his own without even breaking a single sweat? By rights, since he is a person with a profession that requires him to travel to other countries often, he needed to at least have one item of self defense with him. At least that was what his agent told him; he got the papers and any form of legal documents about ownership regarding the weapon. As for the kunai… well, he had to stick with the original. The blonde wiped the wet surface of his face irately, mostly due to the fact that he found it very uncomfortable to lie here under the sun in the middle of the freaking ocean with the remains of a plane which had just exploded approximately twenty minutes earlier floating around him… not to mention, those metallic vessel like things… just what were they?

The blonde closed his eyes, guessing that a sleep will at least save him from all the thinking that he might do. Becoming an author of one of the world's most bestselling book requires him to think constantly even during moments when he was not writing or working on a draft. His editor is—excuse him… was a _busybody_, to both himself and others. It was no wonder that they sent him with him… probably just to get him off from the office or something, too bad he died though. Speaking of jobs… even if he did survive the explosion, he still will not be able to return back to the company who he was employed in. A chain heart attack in one day is something that people must want to avoid… imagine him entering the building while the others are watching the news of his unfortunate plane crash… on second thought, it would be a funny thing.

Regardless, it seemed that he will have to take a looong time away from writing; a good thing really because he was just getting bored on the stuff. While the job did give him a lot of money, it had always been a continuous pattern of writing and waiting. Really, who would want to get holed up in an apartment and eating restaurant food for the rest of their lives? Well, maybe a great majority would want to but not him. Nu uh. As he was lying down and trying to rest his eyes, he heard the sound of water splashing. No… splashing would not be the correct term to word it. What was it… it is the sound of when you spilt a water with your hand, the sound of something skating right on top of the surface of water, almost like a boat really if it were not for the fact that he was not hearing any engine noises. The more he tried to ignore the sound, he louder he could hear them.

Holy shit on a stick… it looks like someone made it in time just to the location.

"Hey! This is the crash right here. Chikuma-san, where are the Abyssal signatures you speak of before?"

"I… I don't understand… they disappeared and it appears that my sonar has given me a delayed response…"

"Delayed…? You mean to tell me that the Abyssals were already gone even before we got here?!"

"Yes, I'm afraid so…"

The man did not budge. He kept on hearing these women voices speaking amongst each other. Wait… women voices? He allowed himself to take a small peek of the situation, but found his vision covered due to something—or someone for that matter—coming right in front of his field of vision.

"Heeeeey~ there is someone over here! It looks like he's still alive!"

'_Thank you miss surprisingly childlike voice, you finally noticed huh?'_ The man still refrained from moving or anything.

"What?! Impossible! No one should've survived that—Oh my… Oi Kongou! There is someone here!"

"WHAT?!" an English voice? Surprising, he had only been listening to Japanese from recently. "Let me see Zuikaku… Oh my God! It is a person!" Then, he felt a finger poking him right on his whiskered cheeks. "Ooooiii mister~ are you alive? Are you dead?"

'_Hey now, that was not very polite—'_

"That's not polite Kongou…"

'_Yes, you say it miss strict in the group.'_ The man mentally agreed. While the man could have just easily spring himself on his feet, he was not cruel enough to give whoever these girls are an early heart attack. It looked like he will have to wait some more. The sound of water being parted can be hear again, it appeared that by that notice more and more people are coming in.

"Oh my, what do we have here… he's alive?"

"Oh Kitakami you're here! And Oii-chi too." The one known as 'Kongou' spoke.

"Don't call me that _English_, only Kitakami-san is allowed to call me that!" a grumpy female voice barked back, obviously not liking the way this Kongou person was referring her.

"…Eh… so he's still alive?" the voice of this 'Kitakami' girl asked.

"Apparently yes…" this time, it was back to miss strict in the group. "I can tell that he is still breathing… but I'm not sure if he's unconscious or not, but I'm leaning towards the former." Well girl, you just leaned on the wrong side. "Anyway, Kitakami, Kongou, you two check up on him."

Shortly after the order from the one who appeared to be leading this small group or something, he felt his body being touched by two pair of hands. Smooth hands. So that confirms the thought that all of these people are women. One of them poked his cheeks harder, definitely the one from before. Well, it looked like he had to cut the acting right here. Slowly but professionally done, the blonde began coughing and wheezing back to 'consciousness'. He took an extra more coughs, just to get the act going on.

"Cough cough cough! Wha – What the hell…?" damn he was a good actor, take that Nicholas Cage! Slowly, his eyes groggily opened, showing the world his azure blue eyes. His voice came out rough and gruff, he made it sounded like as if he had been consuming nothing but coffee these past few weeks. Not that he was trying to relate it to an experience or something. Slowly, the image of two girls—no make that six girls who are perfectly and nonchalantly standing on the top of the water's surface enters his vision.

"Yatta! He's still alive! Nee, Kongou-san, the mister is still alive!" there was this one… young looking girl. Who was he kidding with, this girl was young. So young. She might as well join grade school or something, because she would most definitely fit right in, in no time. She had these horn hair ornament attached to her hair like a pair of mouse ears, and a pair of binoculars hanging off from a string on her neck. She was dressed in a rather… dare he say it, absurd sailor uniform with obviously no skirt or pants at all. He was not going to get deeper than that in terms of clothing, but she had a huge smile on her face right now; a smile which was born from a mixture of relief, happiness and joy altogether poured into one big bowl and mixed before being baked into a cake.

"Ooooh! Hey mister, you're handsome!" the one who was currently next to him, one of the two girls—the English speaking one—, called out with a huge smile on her face. Now as for her, she looked older than the first but definitely not as him. She stands tall, he could tell despite her kneeling at the moment, and she was dressed in this modified shrine maiden like uniform; the white top, red short hakama and the detached sleeves as well as these pair of thigh length brown leather boots that was somehow had matched with her uniform regardless of the cultural diversities. Her hair was colored brown, reminded him of cinnamon to be honest and her hair was done in the manner that he would remember the classic and original Star Wars movie; with those twin doughnut like buns, who would not be reminded of princess Leia? But the ahoge sticking out from her head just killed it for some reason.

"Hmm… yeah, not bad at all." The other woman, the one who was currently definitely checking him out, was… normal looking, to say the least. However, she had this charm in her… like a… 'a rose in the middle of a weed patch' like feeling. Her face looked normal, if not for the smirk she was currently sporting while checking out his risqué form at the same time. She had a long black hair which was tied into twin single braided pigtails which went down the front of her shoulders perfectly. She was dressed in this olive colored sailor uniform and a matching skirt, she had a pair of black ankle length socks and also a set of good eyes. From a guy's perspective, she appeared to know where to look and when to look. Given the chance he was currently giving to her, she had a full meal of looking at him.

"Uwaaaaah!" a scream was released from a girl who… skated… right toward this braided girl. "Kitakami-san! Don't let yourself be swayed by this man's charm! He's…! He's…!" it seemed that she was currently struggling to find the right word.

And he, being a gentleman, had no excuse to not help her.

"Undesirable?"

"Yes! Undesirable for someone such as you!" then it kicked her. "HEY! WHO SAYS THAT YOU GOT A SAY IN THIS?!" this raging lesbian is a girl who stood tall as most of the other girls around her, with the exception of the English girl and the little rodent lookalike kid. She was wearing the exact same type of clothing that 'Kitakami' was wearing and the only difference is the… okay, so there was no difference at all. It was either they both matched in anything but attitude, or they both are like that. Well, he had no problems with the latter but maybe with the former. This girl had a long flowing brown hair, not as brown as the English girl and it is not tied to anything at all. The glare she was sending the man did little to no effect on him, not that she noticed anyway.

The sound of someone skating over toward him was heard again, this time; it appeared to be two people. One of them is another shrine maiden lookalike, the difference was that she was shorter and had twin tails. Her front chest area was covered by a muneate, those chest plates like things used in Japanese traditional archery. The bow and glove she had with her confirmed the fact that she was indeed a shrine maiden look alike, with all the stereotypical ones practicing Kyuudo. She had a darkish green hair that reminded him of seaweed for some reason, and the serious but alarmed look on her face practically just screamed out her distrust of him. Well, he cannot say that he blamed her.

The other one was expressing a more well composed and professional expression. She was taller than the twin tails, her uniform being one of the few that he had never seen before in his entire long and everlasting life. Her skin was fair, just like all the other females present right here, and her hair was probably the longest out of all the other girls. Her uniform was mainly green in color, with the brick colored bow tie and Chinese styled skirt or whatever you want to call them. Honestly speaking, he did not care in the slightest.

Now that he had gotten a good look at all of the water walking girls… he noticed one thing in common. They were all wearing these… unique gear tech stuffs like things. They all have something like an engine of some sort on their backs just like a back pack, Kitakami and the raging lesbian both have these torpedoes inside its launcher which were seemingly rigged on their thighs. Twin tails over there had an arrow and… was that a landing deck like thing she had on her shoulder? Yes, yes it was. The beauty with the long hair was none better. She had these small naval cannons on her shoulders as well as a torpedo launcher on her left thigh; on her right was a part of a ship with the bigger cannons showing. The rodent girl was not as overly… armed… as the rest, but there was no mistaking the torpedo like backpack and naval turret like satchel she was carrying with her. Kongou—the English girl—was… she was, out of all, the one with the biggest guns out of all. Are those really naval cannons on her back?

Twin tails approached him, as well as throwing him a scrutinizing look. "Who are you? Are you a survivor from the plane?" he had to at least give her a point of being direct. Her question remained unanswered, anymore, something told him that he will end up with a bruise or two.

He swept his hair back, getting water to sprinkle off from his golden hair. "As far as I know, I'm still alive right now. So, yeah." He said this with an uncaring shrug. Twin tails gaped at how nonchalant he was being, but she quickly shook it off. He guessed that she was going to fire him with another barrage of questions… pun not intended.

"How did you survive? How are you able to survive? Who are you?" she kept on pestering him with these questions when he have his own sets to begin with. He raised his hands, trying to get her a few feet… or steps away from him.

"Whoa, whoa… calm down, don't get your panties in a bunch." This remark caused Kongou and Kitakami to suddenly snicker, but embarrassment for twin tails over here who started to deepened her glare on him. "First of all, I didn't catch your name."

"…Zuikaku."

"Okay, miss Zuikaku. I will answer your questions if you promise that you will answer mine in return, deal?" he asked, trying to be as reasonable as he could. He got a feeling that they will be playing a long game of twenty questions… better be prepared on what to ask and not what to answer and ask.

The twin tails now known as Zuikaku did not lessen the glare she had on him. Instead, she gave him a curt but direct nod. The blonde man nodded in return. "Okay. Now, I'll answer your questions in the reverse order. I am Uzumaki Naruto; and yes despite my looks I am Japanese. I can't tell you how I was able to survive because I don't know myself and I survived by staying still on this…" he took a moment to figure out what the heck was he sitting on. "thing. Yeah, that's basically it. Now, would it be alright if I ask you my own sets of questions?"

"Sure."

"Okie dokie. First, how did you find me?"

Now this emitted a rather surprised reaction, not only from Zuikaku but also from the others. Except for the little rodent kid since, well, she was a kid; that or she was just not paying attention. Zuikaku gives him a calculating look, as if she was trying to figure out why did he suddenly asked a question that she least expect he would be asking. Regardless, she promised him that she will answer him. And answer him she will.

"Chikuma-san," she referred to the beauty with the nice pair of legs. "was able to get a signature of Abyssal vessels from this area, but we lost it. We were also informed by base that there was a recent and sudden plane explosion. This was later deduced to be the fault of those Abyssal vessels—Look, I don't even know if you understand what I'm saying but—"

"Shh! Go on, go on. Tell me."

Zuikaku grits her teeth, not liking the way this stranger spoke to her. "We concluded that the attack may be from the Abyssal vessels that we manage to detect from here, but as it turns out, there are no single Abyssal units here. Just the remains of the plane and, you." She finished her explanation with the crossing of both arms. Her eyes were still fixed on him, reading his expression poorly.

But for Naruto, he was able to deduce everything from the lengthy but held back information he gave her. These girls are definitely not human. Nope. These girls were probably… robots or something. One might ask how he could come up to such a ridiculous and seemingly impossible conclusion. The answer is simple and he could break it up in only two points.

Point number one, these girls are giving it away from the gears and riggings they were carrying. Really, if this is the way of the Japanese military or navy for that matter showing that they got too much time on their free time then he would not be surprised. Japan's Japan, what other absurd ideas that it could not produce? None. He, being someone who had been travelling to almost all of the most populated place on the planet, never heard of young girls being sent in the army to serve as a combat personnel, much less and noncombatant. Japan was also the most technologically improved country on the planet, so it was not strange that they made robots or something similar.

The next point, and the easiest to break off is the fact that these girls lack life forces. Well, they do have life forces, but it was not human or something that a human would have. Having being mastered the way of the Sage at the age of sixteen, he had honed it to a level where no other human or mortal beings have ever reached before. He could differentiate life forces between people, regardless if they were twins or not. Humans and animals they have different life forms, and these girls, they did not have both a human and an animal's. So, just what are they? Humans, no, at least only in appearance. But robots… maybe.

But he might have to contradict his own words… these girls they have life force, where usually, non-living things have none. So if they are robots, they should not have any life force in them but electrical charged energy which he could detect by the use of a small magnetic jutsu he had. They both have electrical charged energy in them as well as a form of life force… but what life force? Most curious… most curious indeed. It seemed that he had been missing a lot of things in Japan over the past few two hundred years or so.

He then snapped himself from his inner thoughts. "Okay, next question. Were you sent in here to get these 'Abyssal' things or to scout the plane crash?"

Again, yet another seemingly unordinary question coming from the man. Usually, in these kind of situations, people would ask questions like 'who are you' or even 'who sent you', but this person; he had been asking the passive questions.

"The first one. We were just informed about the crash just a few moments before we got here. We got to see the explosion from where we were before. Our priority is to identify and eliminate any Abyssal vessels on sight and perish them once and for all from the Japanese sea." She said the last part with pride.

Naruto gave her a small playful smirk. "And let me guess, you just got bummed because whatever it is you're searching for ain't here anymore?"

At that, Zuikaku hung her head low. She then raised it again, looking at the man and keeping her glare stationary at him. "Then, your last question?"

The man adopted a full thinking pose, with the holding of his chin and what not. Then, he broke to a stupid but sheepish grin.

"Eh… okay. Do you have any idea on how I could get to Tokyo? Because… eh, you see, my passport and all were destroyed along with the rest of my luggage and so… yeah."

Flagship Zuikaku blinked.

* * *

The next thing she knew, she was already in the admiral's office with the blonde stranger and finishing her report to Admiral Kotegawa.

"If that is all Zuikaku, you and your team may dock now. I will have a discussion with…"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"…Uzumaki-san here."

Zuikaku and the rest of her team saluted formally toward their commanding officer. "Hai!" then they proceed to exit the office, leaving the admiral and the blonde stranger. As soon as the door which both leads inside and outside of the office was shut closed, Naruto could feel the admiral's staring on him. The people here were kind enough to lend him some sort of a grey military t-shirt, it is a grey military t-shirt. The shirt was a size or two smaller for him, hence why it was now sticking into his body like a second skin. The fact that the material was making his back itch is another problem altogether.

The officer in front of him was seated on her chair behind her desk. For someone having the rank of an admiral, she looked young; but appearance wise, she appeared to be the same age as him. Not his real age, his physical age. The admiral was dressed in a white naval officer uniform, the difference is that she was wearing a short sleeved top instead of the long sleeved ones he thought that the officers would wear. Her complexion was light, making a fine contrast to if compared his own tanned complexion. Her eyes were wide, color remembering him of the clear night sky. Her hair was kept on a ponytail, and most of them were kept from becoming messy by her hat which she currently had on with her. Overall, she did not look bad; just strange.

Naruto caught her eyes flickering as soon as she felt him landing his eyes on her. She was doing a very poor job of trying to get a read on him, but he was not feeling that cruel today so there was no need to tell that directly to her face. The little girl was just trying to get a read on this stranger, there was no helping it since it was technically a part of her job. She coughed to her fist with the intention of bringing his attention on her. The man humored her by acting startled and new.

"Please, take a seat Uzumaki-san."

This is how she wanted the scene to go. First, she will start to ask him directly about who he was.

"Who are you, Uzumaki-san?"

"Me? I'm Uzumaki Naruto, an author for a book that you probably kept hidden underneath your third drawer on the left side of your desk miss admiral." He introduced himself cheerfully with a two fingered salute as well as smirk. The answer to her question did little to surprise her, but there was no mistaking that brief flash of surprise that just came to life on the surface of her eyes.

"An author? I see. Then, was it true that you are a survivor of the plane that had just exploded earlier today?" she asked him again. Now she was doing more than just 'trying to make sure'. When a person asked what they already know twice, it did not simply meant that they want to simply 'make sure'. This person was trying to make him confirm things on his own, not easing her sense of cluelessness by making him answer, but she was simply trying to get him to confirm the answers that she had already know.

Again, he supposed that he will humor her by being the one who acts stupid. "Yes, you are right." His lips pursed, eyes flickering sideways for an extra effect. "It happened so suddenly, one moment I was enjoying a small nap, then this explosion suddenly happened and I found myself sinking into the sea. It was… not one of my memorable experience, to say the least." He faked out a forced smile, much more of a grimace really.

A look of understanding crossed the woman's face. However, it was then replaced by a calculating one yet again. "But don't you think that it's impossible to survive a mid-air plane explosion and survive with only… ripped clothing and minor scratches all around you?" now at this point, she was not holding back anymore. "Amuse me Uzumaki-san, please do."

The blonde hummed. He could just make this woman forget the few ten minutes of her life just by staring at her, but that will not prove to be the best solution at the moment. Why, because those girls from earlier knew about this too; so there was no other way that he was getting out from this without some further questioning if he will not do the same thing to those girls. Giving up is not just his thing, especially in an argument. So, he will, humor her again.

"Tell me, do you believe in luck?"

This made the admiral blink. "…Pardon?"

But he was not paying her any mind. "When I was twelve, I fell down a cliff that was probably as deep as a huge lake. I didn't know how I managed to end up in that kind of situation, but what I know is that I survived that fall. Of course, it was thanks to the rushing currents that were there to prevent me from really dying. Then, when I was sixteen, I made a bet. A bet that could both end and make my life miserable and horrible at the same time… I made that bet, and I was rich by the next ten minutes. And, when I was twenty five; I made the biggest choice in my life. Yes, as you might've guessed, I did make the right choice. Now, tell me, after hearing all of that, will you believe me that I survived that plane explosion through luck?"

"No."

Now, it was his turn to blink. He then sighed. "You just have to make this harder for the both of us didn't you?" he then stared right into her eyes, his own changing into that of red blood with black rings and nine commas intersecting in the middle of each lines. A second later, the admiral fell motionless onto her desk's surface, as if she had been shot right at the back of the head. The fall was pretty hard, Naruto bet that she will feel the sting the moment she woke up again.

What he just did was completely necessary. He tried to beat around the bush, but she would not allow him. So, he ditched the scissors for the chainsaw right away. Maybe using his eyes would be a tad too much on her, but hey, as long as he avoid from killing her entirely, sending her into a completely different dimension and burning her with the Eternal Flame itself, it will all be fine.

Just as his thoughts had end, the woman groaned and started to raise her head from her desk. She took a moment to look around her, getting the sense of dizziness out from her system by blinking constantly and rubbing her forehead. She then froze, her body akin to that of a string being stretched so suddenly. Her pupils dilated, before returning to their normal empathic state. Suddenly she smiled, extending her hand towards him.

"Ah, so that's how it is. Well, Naruto-san, I have to apologize for the miscommunication thus far, but I'm also sorry to say that we cannot let you off this easily." She then shook his hand before retracting it back. "The girls that were with you just a few moments ago, they are not like us. They are not humans, you can think of them as robots but they are designed and programmed to act like humans with the exception of a few things, such as fighting bizarre sea terrors and other things that any normal humans could not do."

Before anything else, so it was true that these girls are not human, but she still did not tell him anything about their life force… guess he will have to keep it for later. What he just did to this woman was some sort of… pseudo hypnotism. Or mind bending, if one could say. What he had just done was to cut her original thought and replacing it with what he wanted her to have, of course, this is not a simple technique since he cannot just do this instantly like most of the other ones he got hidden in his arsenal.

"I see… then, what will become of me?" he asked.

"We will have to force you to stay in the naval base until we are sure that you will not reveal about these girls' existence to anyone outside of military status or even unauthorized people who are not made aware of the girls. I am sorry, Naruto-san, but there is nothing else I can do." she flashed him an apologetic look.

To which he replied with his understanding nod. "No, it's fine. I understand… so, I will be in some sort of witness protection program like thing, the only difference is that you are protecting for what I might do?" he asked cheekily with a grin.

"You can think of it like that. Don't worry, a residence will be provided for you, as well as a few living accommodations." She told him. "There will be people arriving shortly to prepare your living quarters as well as to be your guide along the naval district." She tipped her hat, a smile forming on her face. "This may be a different start—a sudden one too at that, but please do try to cooperate, Naruto-san."

A while later, there was knocking on the door.

"Enter."

The door opened, revealing the person who knocked. The person was a girl of normal height, though she was not as tall as either Naruto or the admiral. The first thing he noticed about her was her lightly colored pink hair which was tied into some sort of a topknot style. She was wearing a short sleeved plain white collared shirt with a light grey vest over it, she had a string ribbon which was colored in red tied around her collar. Her lower wear consisted of a pair of matching grey skirt as well as a pair of spats underneath it, as an accessories, she had a pair of white gloves on. Her facial expression was best described to be… almost nonexistent, but it somehow suited the 'baby face' she was gifted with. Her icy blue eyes fixed themselves on him and even though it was just for a few milliseconds, he could tell that she was uneasy.

"Admiral? Is it a bad time, should Shiranui come at another time?" she asked. Her surprisingly soft spoken voice was presented in a monotone like manner, but regardless, she asked a question.

"Ah Shiranui, I'm afraid that we will have to speak later. As you can see, I'm having a guest right now. I will call you when I'm done."

The admiral reply was well received by the pink haired spats wearing girl called Shiranui. Naruto was not dumb, so he concluded that Shiranui was in fact one of these… Ship Girls. Besides, he had his sensory abilities to confirm it. She had the same exact energy type that he felt on the group of five girls who escorted him here. The more that he thought about these girls, the more curious he got.

"Shiranui understands. Then, pardon me." She then curtly and politely excused herself out from the room, but not while keeping her icy eyes on the only blonde in the room.

'_What's with this girl… she's like the next Itachi…'_ now if she were to hear him saying it to her, would it be taken as a compliment or as an insult… of course, if she knew the man. Something tells him that it would be the latter.

After the door closed for the second time that day, Naruto returned to the admiral; or vice versa. She gave him a serene smile. "I'm sorry for the interruption Naruto-san, where were we?"

"We were just about to touch the topic about my living accommodation?" he helped her by reminding her as she requested.

She made an 'ooh' reaction. "Ah, yes. About your living accommodation, I will ask the dorm supervisor to prepare a room for you in the private sector of the district, and someone to give you a tour around the district." There was this small device on her desk, upon further inspection, Naruto concluded said device to be an intercom. Her gloved finger pressed on the small button fixed on the device. "Inazuma, could you please come to my office?"

Receiving no reply, it meant that the message was delivered and received. He remained in his seat while gazing out blankly at the window. Right now, as he was waiting for whoever this Inazuma person is, he was maintaining his mind technique which he had casted on the female admiral. Speaking of which, he had not gotten her name.

Naruto shifted on his seat. "I'm afraid that I didn't get your name yet, admiral-san."

A look of surprise crossed her face. "Really? My apologies, it was rude of me. My name is Yamazaki Naomi." She flashed him a polite smile, well she would not be smiling if he had not used a mind bending technique on her. Her name seemed normal, but her looks—when he took a closer and longer look—says otherwise. From a crowd, it may be easier to spot her if he looked at the right part of her face. Then again, he had always been good at identifying people.

"If I may ask, how long have you been an officer in this base? You look rather young… so… yeah."

"Ara, ara… I'm not that young myself. I'm thirty three and I've been a commanding officer ever since I was twenty six, so that makes it seven years now." She replied politely. "How about you Naruto-san, what do you do?"

"Me? As I've said before, I'm an author. I don't know if you ever heard of my books before but… it's called Icha Icha romance series." He revealed without a hint of shame. Jiraiya's books proved to be a good source of income for him, not to mention, with its sudden boom in popularity ever since the first time it got published in Japan, it has been one of the top reads in the entire world now that there are translated version of it.

"An author… Icha Icha roma—" she gasped, her eyes going wide. Her face suddenly becomes red, all the way from her forehead to her neck. She recoiled from her seat, her hands clasped on her mouth. "Y – You are the author for that series?" she asked in what seem to be complete shock. "Are you really the author for the Icha Icha romance series?!" instead of questioning him, it was more of a demand.

"Yes, I am. I said it didn't I?" Naruto answered with a small laugh. This reaction is normal to him when he had to reveal his occupation to some certain individuals. In the West, his series was known as Make Out Tactics series while here in Japan, it was Icha Icha. Seeing her reaction made it obvious that she herself was or probably is a reader herself.

"I – I don't know what to say…" she then forcibly grasped the man's hand into a quick paced handshake. Her smile was wider, there was a certain glint in her eyes; one that Naruto knew too well. "I'm your biggest fan, could you sign my book?" suddenly, there was an orange covered book on her free hand, again, something that the blonde knew too well. The book was none other than the very first installment to his Icha Icha romance series, Icha Icha: Paradise.

The blonde laughed before grabbing a pen from the desk, he took the book from the woman's hand and opened the hardcover. He signed his signature quickly and smoothly, and once he returned it to the woman, she quickly placed it inside her drawer; under a hidden compartment underneath. With a stupid smile plastered on her face, she bowed her head low enough to be called polite. "Thank you very much, Naruto-san."

The blonde smiled back in return. "Anything for a fan of mine." Then suddenly, at an almost ridiculously perfect timing, there was knocking on the office's door. Both of Naruto's and the admiral's attention were shifted to the door, and after a moment of silence, the door swung open; revealing Inazuma.

Again, he might be starting to question the preference of the people who built these Ship Girls. Inazuma, obviously, was also a Ship Girl. She stood short, about the height of a middle school girl; reaching only to his abdomen and no more. She wore a dark blue and white sailor uniform with the tie colored in red, aside from her almost childlike features, she had an aura of reliability and usefulness… if he could say it that way. Her hair was brown in color and her hair style being that of a raised ponytail gave her a certain charm and extra cuteness points. Her eyes were a pair of darker brown if compared to her hair, and her small petite frame did not help much in proving that she was a Ship Girl. Put her in the middle of a street in a Monday morning and people will see what he meant.

"A – Admiral, you called for me?" she had noticed him, yes, but that did not excuse her from not replying to her officer's summons. Naruto felt a hint of nostalgia hitting him at the moment for some reason. To him, it was as if she was trying to maintain a total focus of her commander instead of this stranger in the room with them.

"Ah Inazuma, right on time." Something tells him that she was really relieved… the admiral then gave a gesture towards him. "This is Uzumaki Naruto-san, and due to certain circumstances, he will be staying here as a guest."

"Yo." He gave the shorter girl a two fingered salute as well as a small smile.

Inazuma shyly responded by giving a hesitating nod. She directed her focus again towards her admiral, of course, the reason she was here cannot be just for the sake of introducing this stranger to her? "I want you to be his guide, give him a tour of the place and after you are done, please drop him off at the living quarters."

Inazuma, since she was technically trained as a military personnel, saluted. "Hai!" she approached the blonde by taking a few small steps forward. She took a deep and formal bow. "My name is Inazuma, I may be clumsy but please, take care of me Uzumaki-san."

Naruto smiled in response. This girl is really cute… was what he thought. "Mah, mah… you don't have to be so formal to me. Just call me Naruto, it's fine." He reassured her by widening his smile. When it comes to children, or robots looking like children in this matter, or just children in general really, he got his switch flipped into a different one. For once, he loved children due to their attitude; but sadly, some can be a little bit too noisy for him. Regardless, he still liked them.

"Then, Naruto-san..." Inazuma said shyly.

A while later, they were both excused from the office and Naruto's tour began.

* * *

"Zuikaku, you seem upset, what's wrong?"

To Shoukaku, her sister was everything. Followed by duty and herself as final. Since they were both constructed as sisters, their relationship was just like that of two sisters. Sitting on a chair in Mamiya's café, Shoukaku found that it was a good idea to treat herself and her sister some dessert. Mamiya's café was the only and the best café around, aside from Ship Girls as customer, Mamiya also has human regulars. In short, the place is personnel friendly and everyone could enjoy the fine treats that this place have to provide.

Which is why seeing her sister sigh melancholically while having a bowl of ice cream dessert in front of her was something new… and unnerving, if she could say.

"It's nothing Shoukaku-nee… it's just about this random stranger that we picked up during our sortie earlier." Zuikaku answered her sister while looking as gloom as a cloudy sky.

"Stranger…? You picked up a random stranger during your sortie?" She had all rights to be surprised. You do not pick up random strangers during sorties, ever. "What do you mean Shoukaku? Wasn't the mission's order to just patrol the surrounding sea area?"

"Yes." The twintailed carrier nodded. "Until we discovered a few Abyssal signatures from the distance. During the way on confirming the signatures that we picked up, we encounter the remaining rubbles and pieces of a civilian air plane on the sea. Supposedly, no one should be able survive that kind of thing, but as it turns out, we were wrong." Zuikaku leaned over the table, her face showing her thoughts about the matter. "No one should've been able to survive a plane explosion like that Shoukaku-nee, no one. But he… he did!"

Zuikaku blinked, she then noticed that she had gathered the attention of everyone in the café. Blushing, she quickly returned to her chair and covering her earlier outburst with a cough. "A – Anyway Shoukaku-nee, if you ever meet this person, just try to avoid him… something tells me that he's suspicious."

"Suspicious? Just what does this person looks like?"

"Well, for once, he's a man; a foreigner probably because he has blonde hair and not to mention, he has blue eyes. He's tall, probably as tall as Nagato-san and it isn't hard to notice him out. And he looks to be in his early thirties or something, I don't know, he just has this mature feeling about him." Zuikaku shrugged. "Just… try to be careful when you're near him, okay Shoukaku-nee?"

Shoukaku knew that her sister cares for her, probably even more than she cares for herself. However, the talk of this stranger appearing out of nowhere and being the survivor of a plane explosion seemed… unrealistic. Regardless, she knew that her sister will not lie to her and she could confirm it with the other Ship Girls who sortied earlier if she wanted too.

The white haired sister of Zuikaku nodded, giving her sister a reassuring smile. "Um. But we of the 5th Carrier Division must be polite Zuikaku, we cannot ignore someone just because he or she is a stranger."

Zuikaku knew that she cannot defeat her sister. "Yes Shoukaku-nee."

"Ufufu. Anyway, eat up now, or else your ice cream will melt."

The two sisters from the 5th Carrier Division happily enjoyed their time in the café, but that moment did not last forever. The door to Mamiya's slid open, revealing an unordinary pair. One was a man and the other one was a girl, the former taller than the latter being way shorter.

"This is Mamiya-san's café, she is a very good cook, nanodesu. The sweets in here are nice, and the best that anyone could find the entire naval district nanodesu."

"Ah really? I don't really like eating sweet things, so I'll take your word for it, Inazuma."

"Then what is your favorite food, Naruto-san?"

"Ramen."

Back over the 5th Carrier Div, Shoukaku was eating her ice cream alongside her sister who was closer on finishing it first. She was not paying attention but soon, she started to see that the other Ship Girls inside the café were all staring at the same direction. Curious, Shoukaku too twisted her head so that she could look and see what the commotion is about. Her eyes went wide when she saw a blonde stranger matching the description which Zuikaku has given her earlier, she found herself staring and not noticing it until her sister snapped her out from it.

"Shoukaku-nee, what's wro—it's you!" Zuikaku was going to ask her sister a question, until she too noticed what people had been staring at this whole entire time. She slammed her hands on the table, standing so suddenly that it caused the chair to fall and pointing rudely over to the point of interest. Her eyes are also wide, brimming with surprise at what she was currently seeing. The two people who had just entered Mamiya's café froze at being referred to so suddenly. Especially the male.

Said male blinked three times, quickly. An innocent and confused look crossed his face. "Me?" he pointed a finger to his chest, obviously confused.

"Wha- yes you! What are you doing here!" the twintailed carrier demanded with heat, approaching the taller stranger and giving him the eye. "Don't tell me that you did something to the admiral!" this sudden assumption brought out multiple gasps from the watching audience. Whispers started to emit, all of them obviously speaking about the blonde stranger.

Naruto looked around, confused. He then took a closer look at Zuikaku, before his eyes went wide in realization. "Oh! It's the miss twintails!" he pointed rudely at the fuming Zuikaku.

"Twin-hey!"

Inazuma, who was already panicking by seeing how the situation had become, desperately tried to interfere with the two to prevent unnecessary interactions. "Hawawawa! Z – Zuikaku-san, Naruto-san! Please don't fight!"

It was then when Zuikaku noticed the brown haired Destroyer. "Inazuma? You're here too?"

"Y – Yes nanodesu, so please don't fight!"

After a while, the commotion died down. Deciding that a conversation amongst themselves was necessary, the two group of duos now combined forming an _uncommon_ group of quadruplets. Now sharing a table and cooled off—in Zuikaku's case—the four decided to have talk over some tea and sweets. Zuikaku was still giving the blonde man the look throughout the whole time, her hands crossed and looks saying that she found his presence disturbing in a way. God… just what is the deal with tsunderes?

'_Just what's the deal with tsunderes…'_ Naruto shook himself off the mental thoughts. He then coughed to his fist, starting a conversation. "…We may have started off weirdly just now, so let me say this again. I am Uzumaki Naruto and starting from now on, I'll be staying here." He said politely. He knew when to be polite, so take that Iruka-sensei.

Zuikaku was there to say otherwise. "Pft, yeah please. Tell us the truth, just who are you anyway? And don't bother lying this time because I won't be allowing you to."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. _'A feisty tsundere… can it get any worse?' _on second thought, he took it back. He might have jinxed himself back there. Shaking his head, Naruto simply shrugged. "I've told you the truth. I'm the guy who survived the plane explosion, I'm the guy who you rescued from the sea and I'm the guy who you're currently demanding questions from. No lies right there."

Zuikaku was not buying it. "That first one sounds sketchy no matter how you say it. Surviving a plane crash isn't just possible to begin with! Are you really human to begin with!?"

.

.

.

Silence.

"Heh, won't you like to know?" the man then laughed. "Yes, for your information, I _am_ human and you can punch me in the face right now to figure it out yourse—Ugh!" she punched him. "…Okay, wasn't expecting that…"

"Z – Zuikaku!" Shoukaku, who has just witnessed her sister punching somebody right on the face, screamed out in surprise. "What was that for!? Apologize at once!"

"B – But Shoukaku-nee!"

Naruto raised his hand, he really needed to watch what he will say… "It's fine, it's fine. It hurts, but only for the first few minutes." Thank God she did not hit him right on the nose, otherwise it would have sucked real bad. After massaging the place where Zuikaku just punched him, he returned his hands by placing them on the table. He then gave the twintailed carrier a cheeky grin, or a mocking one at that. "Did it felt like flesh and bones?"

"Tch…!" Zuikaki clicks her tongue, regardless, she was still irked.

Shoukaku could only send her sister a mild glare. She then bowed politely toward the man, her forehead nearly touching the table. "I'm very sorry for my sister's behavior Uzumaki-san, she won't do it again."

"S – Shoukaku-nee, you don't have to!"

"It's fine really, nothing serious there." Naruto waved it off as if it was just a blunder made. "I'm used to getting my greetings like that, especially with women." He let out a few chuckles. He then forgot that they had a fourth member with them. "Oi, Inazuma, you okay there?" he asked the girl who appeared to be in trance this whole entire time.

His calling her caused her to be snapped out from whatever trance she was in. Embarrassed at being caught dozing off, Inazuma's cheeks turned slightly red. "N – No, it's nothing. I – It's just…" she pointed out a finger towards him, or his face to be exact. "Are those really whisker marks, nanodesu?"

"Eh? These?" Naruto touched his cheeks. "Nah, they're birthmarks. I've had them ever since I knew that I could think." Honestly speaking, he never thought where these came from but it probably had to do with something big and furry and red… and angry. "Why?"

"N – No, nanodesu… it's just like… a cat."

"Really? It's more like a fox to me though."

Shoukaku, who had been silent and tense at what her sister just did, could not but agree for some reason.

Seeing the scene in front of her made Zuikaku wanted to throw up, for some reason. "Hey! Don't get sidetracked here." She grabbed the man's attention forcibly. "Just what are you doing here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be locked up in the admiral's room being questioned and things?"

Naruto nodded, but still finding her tsundere antics to be cliché. "I did got questioned and locked up in a room. Long story short, I'm now in some sort of a witness protection program and was ordered to stay here until further notice. Right now, Inazuma is showing me around the district, your admiral's order."

Hearing this from him did not make Zuikaku calmer, not even the slightest. "But that still doesn't explain why the admiral let you out that easily though… right now, you should be locked up in a place somewhere and waiting until you got questioned again."

He had to admit, this girl is smart. "You thought so too? Heh. But honestly, I think that your admiral just want to play it safe. Let's see the situation in this way: right now, I am completely innocent and it was not my most sincere of intentions to get a plane being exploded in midflight nor did I want you to find me at sea—I still appreciate it by the way—but, now that I've known something I shouldn't in the first place, your admiral can't just let me out from the base just like that; it'd be weird. So tell me Zuikaku, what's a better option to do if you were the admiral? Would you let some completely random stranger who survived a plane accident out from the base after knowing important and possibly vital knowledge about things he shouldn't know just like that, or will you try to make him stay here and keep his mouth shut one way or another?"

Zuikaku did not answer directly. He was right, but she hated him for being right. Clenching her fist, she cannot say anything else. "…Fine. But if I ever see you doing… _unnecessary_ things, I won't hesitate to report you." It was not a threat she was saying, it was a promise.

"Meh." Naruto shrugged. "It's not like I'll do anything soon anyway, I haven't even finished my tour. But you know what I've finished? My food." The bowl in front of him was empty, and it appeared that it had already been like that throughout the whole time they were having the conversation. "Come on, let's continue the tour Inazuma."

"Y – Yes!" surprisingly, the Destroyer had also finished her food.

Zuikaku looked back at the man's empty bowl and leaving form, a guffawed and baffled look on her face. "How did he—did you see him eating Shoukaku-nee?!"

"N – No, I… I didn't know what happened…"

After the talk, the duo of Destroyer and man left the cafe.

* * *

"...This is the final place."

Surrounding him are home like buildings, all of them having the same properties in size and even color. The buildings are made from brick walls, properly intended for decoration purposes; there were windows but they were all covered by curtains to prevent people outside from looking inside. The area was environment friendly, considering the small flower garden he was seeing every now and then near the properties and most importantly, this place seemed to be the least crowded out of all the places Inazuma had shown him.

"So this is the living quarters?" He asked, eyes still wandering around. He had to say, for a military base, this place looks more and more like a private housing estate. It got its own district and all of that, might as well built a mall in here. He approached a nearby tree and staring at it unblinkingly while in deep trance.

"A – Ah yes, this is the living quarters." Inazuma replied softly. "The admiral said to drop you off in here, but she didn't tell where you would be staying at." She said. "But... I – I think that I know where you will be staying."

Naruto took a moment off from the tree staring to look at the short Destroyer. "Um... really? Okay then, lead the way."

And lead the way she did. Inazuma brought him deeper into the housing section of the district where more and more houses were seen. She stopped at one particular building, a building similar like the others but somehow... different than the rest. Naruto could not make up what made this building feels different at first sight, but after a few minutes of analyzing the front; he noticed that this was the only building with no sign plate fixed on the door. Inazuma took the intiative of opening the door, which surprised him to found it unlocked in the first place. Upon entering, the interrior of the building seemed smaller than what he thought it would be. The house, if he could even call it that, was a three roomed building; with only a bedroom, small kitchen and a bathroom. It would be appropriate to call this room a studio styled one, seeing that the living room was in fact the bedroom in one place.

As for furnishing, it seemed that they got a standard or default furnishing of their own. The bedroom, the place where he and Inazuma was currently at—at the moment, was lightly furnished with a small sofa, a single bed to the side near the window and a small coffe table in the middle of it all. The kitchen was through the door on the left, he checked it and found it to be well furnished. There was a fridge, a stove, oven as well as a microwave. The cupboards are filled with cooking utensils too, which was mighty convenient. The bathroom was a surprise, he thought that it would be just a standard set of tub and shower; but no, there was a sink as well as washing machine too.

Overall for him, this place looked decent and comfortable.

"I guess that this is enough for the tour, nanodesu." Naruto noticed that Inazuma was already heading towards the door to excuse herself.

"Ah, I guess it is. Thank you for showing me around Inazuma." He flashed her a thankful smile. He was really thankful and Inazuma seemed like a nice girl, so thanking her nicely seemed to be the best and only choice there is.

"Um, you're welcome nanodesu."

Naruto then got a bright idea. "Say, next time, why don't you come and visit me here? Bring your friends too if you want." He brought his hand to the back of his head and began to scratch it sheepishly. "To be honest, I think that it's just tad too lonely being all the way here all alone, you know?"

Inazuma looked surprised. She had just met him, but he wanted her to visit? "I – Is that so? Then, if you have no problems with it, Naruto-san. Oh and have a nice day, nanodesu." She bowed formally for one last time.

"Yes, you too."

Inazuma left the building, leaving him all alone in his new living quarter.

"Heh..." it was funny, now that he thought about it. These Ship Girls act, behave and probably feel emotions just like a normal human being, where in reality, it was just impossible for it to happen. Technology had really advanced these days... if the other Ship Girls are like Inazuma, then he would have no problem in getting along with them, but as it turned out, there are some with... attitudes. A certain twintailed girl came to mind.

But in all seriousness, he had no idea how things work around here and that was a troubling thing for a shinobi such as him. Shinobis... they just could not handle not knowing things, such as the place they are living, the situation they are in and the such. Which is why, he made a couple of clones disguised as birds during the tour to scout the entire base out. Not knowing anything was much worse than knowing too much things, but this rule could also be taken in a vice versa manner. His disguised clones will dismissed themselves when they thought they have known enough, and from there he would receive the knowlege they gather once they dismissed. A nifty and useful trick from his arsenal.

The blonde legend approached the sofa and immediately plopped himself onto the cushion. He landed back first and proceeded to take a long and deep breath before releasing it in the dorm of a sigh.

"Today, let's just rest... tomorrow... a little bit of self exploring might be nice."

* * *

**A/N: Well, here we go. Originally, another story was planned to replace Beyond Dawn's Horizon. But after a lot of thinking, I just had to stick with a more original and unique plot. This story was inspired through a lot of familiar stories out there in FF's archive, but none were copied I assure you. As for the plot... to be honest, I'm still working on that. I haven't found a solid path to take yet, because all that's been were muddy roads and slopes for me, but I plan to get things concrete in the end. **

**Hopefully, I could give my focus here and towards my other stories as well. I know that I haven't been writing much but I have no reasons to say why, I just don't have enough time to write these past few weeks; and probably in the future too. **

**But don't worry, I'll try my best. **

**There's no real solid pairing right now so don't even bother asking, and even if I'm accepting suggestions, I might have to lean away from the harem route. Why? I find it too mainstream, as simple as that. But I just might consider it. Might. **

**So that's all for today, hope you have a nice day/night!**


	2. Their reaction

**For the sake of comfort—mine—the story will be in present tense instead of the previous chapter's past tense.**

* * *

The sound of rushing water comes to a stop when he has finally finished washing his face.

"Brr, the water's strangely cold for some reason..." he wipes his face with a small wash cloth placed on the rack near the sink. After finishing his morning routine in the bathroom, he exits for the livingroom slash bedroom. He cannot believe that it is already the next day after experiencing a trip with a plane exploding in midflight. Regardless, it is all yesterday; today, he has his own sets of plan to accomplish.

Yesterday's tour has proved to be useful due to the fact that he was able to deploy some of his disguised clones in secret to do a little bit of research about the place. Last night, his clones dispelled and the knowledge they have were transferred to him. Now, he holds the knowledge of some of the base's highly restricted locations; such as the armory, refinary and factory. Not only that, his clones managed to eavesdrop a couple of the base's workers into knowing every little tid bits of interesting details. He has names, people, projects as well as information with him. As he has said before, not knowing things is a ninja's discomfort; so now, he feels a little bit relieved after knowing at least this much.

Currently, with the way things are going, he just has to wait until the admiral deals with the important things because technically, he is an innocent bystander who got caught up in the middle of this whole ordeal. The best thing to do is to just lay low, not making any trouble and do as he's told to do.

But unfortunately, that is not fun.

"Hm... a little walk won't hurt." He leaves the house, locking the door and pocketing the keys inside of his pants's pocket. As he walks out of the property, he notices the people around him. It seems that this is where the personnel lives in. 'They sure have a lot of people working in this base.' He swears, this place looks more and more like a living complex instead of a naval base. Then again, the Admiral did say that they have their own little district.

Inazuma gave him a tour of some of the visit friendly places in the naval base; places such as the main building, the port, mess hall, Mamiya-san's cafe, and also a night bar which happened to be closed the other day. The night bar seems interesting, he will make sure to take a visit if he can.

"Ugh... these clothes are getting uncomfortable." The blonde makes a grimace as he scratches his neck. The tight fitting t-shirt he has on is starting to get uncomfortable after a day's use, it is too bad that he cannot make any contacts outside of here. Well, it is better to just stick with what he has at the moment and not doing 'suspicious' things...

"Speaking of suspicious... that Zuikaku girl is bomb, one hell of a girl she is." He snickers mutedly to himself. Something tells him that he will meet her sooner or later today, it's never wrong to trust his intuition. The surrounding area is starting to get wider and more crowded—but not overly crowded—he finds out that he has exited the housing section of the district and into the main district, where all the Ship Girls are at. There are some here and there, they are easy to distinguish now that has gotten a good look at them. Still, it is weird for him to know that these girls are not humans. They look like one, act like one and most definitely behave like one.

He approaches a nearby bench which is conveniently placed under the shade of a tree. Taking a seat, he decides to have a moment of peace by sensing nature through the use of his abilities.

Sage Mode.

How could one forget about that? Sage Mode is the most if not only useful thing that he can use this situation he is in. For once, it will not surround him in an eye blinding chakra shroud nor will it make people run away in fear for giving him a demon like appearance. Orange like mascara surrounds his eyes, Sage Mode is active even though his pupils remain blue; just for the sake of not being suspicious. All of a sudden, he can feel his senses being multiplied to a highest peak. His hearing becomes more sensitive and so does his sense of smell. Not only that, he could feel the slightest touch of the wind brushing past him. The birds that are flying nearby are attracted to him due to the peaceful and serene energy he is constantly letting out and taking in steadily, not long later, an entire flock of them begins to surround him.

He does not mind. Right now, he is feeling better than those boring days being cooped up in his room with nothing but a story manual to think of. A small pigeon perches itself on his head, while its fellow bird finds company of pecking his legs and feet. A squirrel climbs down the branch on top of him and finds its place on his shoulder. He could be mistaken as Buddha with all the peaceful aura he is letting out, and by doing so, he has also gathered a lot of attention.

Blinking, he slowly stands back up to his feet; the two little critters do not even bother to move from their place on his person since they feel content at where they are at the moment. Imagine him, walking around the district with woodland creatures either on him or following him. The response is obvious, the girls are starting to notice him and some are even whispering about him. So far, these girls do not look familiar to him; meaning that they are not the ones who found him in the middle of the sea yesterday.

Naruto is about to return back to his temporary living resident when someone shouts from the distance. "HEEEY~ Mister!" the shouting of the word 'mister' causes him to react and look at where the source of the voice is being projected. From the distance, he can see the image of a brown haired girl with doughnut like buns on her head dressed in a shrine maiden like uniform.

Naruto blinks when he sees this girl rushing up to him as if she is some sort of agent looking for someone to employ. Then it hits him, this is that English girl who was there when she and the others found him in that plane crash site! The girl reaches him in no time and as soon as she does so, she squeals like a high school girl. "I was right! You are handsome mister!"

_'Now, now, that's not something you should say to a person you barely know...'_ managing a smile in return for her extremely cheerful exclamation, Naruto finds it hard to strike up a normal conversation with this girl. "Really? Thanks, you're quite beautiful yourself too." He thinks that if she is going to get all bold, there is no reason for him to hold back.

The girl throws her one of her hands into the sky while the other one rests on her chest. "Oooh! You're such a gentleman too, what a perfect combination desu!" it is unclear to him whether she is swooning for real or if she is faking it, but one thing is clear though, they are going to have a lot of talking after this. "Hey hey mister!" she closes in on him, her eyes full of sparkles and all that glitters. "What's your name? Mine's Kongou desu! The returnee from England and the strongest of the Kongou-class Battleships!"

One thing he likes about this girl, is that she's direct and the way she fluctuates between English and Japanese is cute too. "Me? Mine's Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto, but you can call me Naruto. I'm not one for formalities." He gives her a mock two fingered salute as introduction. "You say that you're the strongest? In what way?"

Kongou's nose flared up and she has it up high like some sort of snotty nobles. "Uhum! I'm the strongest when it comes to fighting and shooting down Abyssal ships and I'm the only one who's able to show her BURNING LOVE to the admiral and you if you want to!" she does a little pose with her arm outstretched in front of her. "So what do you say mister? You want to feel my BURNING LOVE?"

"Burning... love...?" despite not knowing what it is, he can already tell that it is something troublesome. "W – Well, let's just see about that. For now, why don't we get to know each other first, yeah?" he offers with a hint of smile. "My name's Uzumaki Naruto, my likes are ramen, feeling the wind and writing. I'm an author but I'm afraid I'm no longer an active one due to the situation I've been put in. My hobbies are sleeping an gardening. I dislike people who judge others before they even get to know them, and people who are troublesome enough to be considered trouble in my books."

After hearing his introduction, Kongou gets an idea of what is need to be done. "Ooh! Me! My name's Kongou desu! I'm the first and nameship of the four Kongou-class Battleships, I have three younger sisters; Hiei, Haruna and Kirishima. They are all good girls and I love them all very much! What's next... oh! I love tea! Especially black tea; I drink them whenever it's teatime in the morning, evening and even night!"

'_So basically, you're just a typical tea freak.'_

"Um... what else, what else... Oh! I don't like coffee, that stuff is too much of a heretic to be called a drink. I don't know what the admiral finds so good about them... but I do enjoy baking scones! Delicious scones are my specialty!" the way she shows a completely disgusted looking face at the mentioning of coffee is completely amusing for the blonde. "And I also like you Naru-ru!" she declares that last part without the slightest hint of shame or whatsoever.

"You like me? Even though we just met?" and 'Naru-ru'? She is calling him nicknames now? He cannot say that he is surprised by Kongou's straightforwardness. He gets the feeling that this girl is probably too direct for her own good but he cannot imagine that it would be this direct.

"Um!" she nods cheerfully and energetically. "You have ensnared my heart in your love trap, all that's left is for you to open the net and embrace me as we set sail for the beautiful sunset~" she then sighs dramatically, lost in her own fantasies. "Haaah..."

'_Okaaaaaay... this girl is way much more of a bomb than Zuikaku, on a waaay different scale.' _Naruto clears his throat, snapping the daydreaming tea maniac out from her daydream. "Wow, I don't think that I could say anything." It is the truth, never in his whole and long life he encountered a girl like Kongou. So direct, so passionate about her interest and so accepting. He smiles sincerely with his eyes closed. "But... thank you, Kongou."

Kongou is frozen just by the mere sight of his smile. She feels her face slowly but progressing quickly as it heats up, coloring her face in a deep shade of red. For once, she is at lost of what to say. Her heart is strangely beating so fast, too fast than Zekamashi. It is then when she finds out that she has entered a bashful state for the first time of her life. "I – I – It's fine desu! The – There's no need to thank me." Slowly but steadily, Kongou regains her bearings.

She points a declaring finger at him, her face returning to its usual cheerful state. "Just you see Naru-ru! I'll make sure that you'll fall for me with the power of my BURNING LOVE!" her grin is way too wide to be called a normal grin, to Naruto, it is as if she's making a promise by declaring it proudly.

"Oho?" Now, he is beginning to feel challenged. He rivals Kongou's determined face with his own. "Is that a promise I hear?"

"Yes! It is desu!" Kongou confirms with bright determination. She then swings her hand to the side, but the look of pure determination does not dissapear from her face. "I'll show you my most powerful BURNING LOVE and you'll fall for me in no time! Believe it DESU!"

.

.

.

"...Hehehe." Naruto lets out a chorus of amused and good illed chuckles. Slowly, it begins to transform into a full grown laughter, it even comes to a point where Naruto is hunching himself forward while laughing uncontrollably with his hands holding his stomach. He cannot believe it. Someone, someone—a machine robot girl—just used his catchphrase! "Hahaha!"

"Heeey! I'm not joking you know!" Kongou pouts, thinking that the he is probably mocking her. "I'll promise it! I'll promise it right here; that I, Battleship Kongou, will make you, Uzumaki Naruto, fall for me one way or another! So don't laugh!" she screams out.

"Hahaha! Haha! I – It's not that... Hahaha!" he manages to say a few words in the midst of his laughing. "It's just that... haha... it's just that... hahaha!" it seems that the more he tries to speak, the more that he will laugh. Slowly but minimally, his laughing dies down with him trying his best to not laugh again. "Sorry, sorry... I was not making a joke of you or anything."

Kongou's face is practically asking him to explain. The blonde male shrugs lightly, a thinking expression is present on his face. "Well... to be honest, you reminded me of myself there for once. With all the 'believe it!' git and all? I can't help but laugh, it sounded so cute when you say it."

As soon as the word 'cute' escapes his mouth, Kongou feels herself being struck by an imaginary 46cm shell out of nowhere because she just falls down to the ground. Naruto, seeing this, gets the feeling that she is seriously hurt. "Hey, you okay there?" he tries to step in and help her, but is surprised when Kongou jumps back to her feet and her face zooming in so closely to his face seemingly in an instant.

"W – What was that? Did you just say that I was...?" she has this certain expecting look in her eyes, one that Naruto cannot particularly ignore for some reason. "Did you say that I was c – c – c – cute!?" from her tone alone, he could guess that she wants him to say it to her one more time.

Well, nothing bad will happen out of it so why not? "Yeah, I did. You're cute."

Kongou lets out an ear peircing squeal as she throws herself into the blonde's arms, to which he reacts by barely catching her. "Kyaaa! Such a gentleman indeed, Oh my God! I think you're going to make me fall even more and more for you Whiskers!"

'_Whiskers? A new nickname already?'_ lucky him. "H – Hey! Don't just throw yourself on to me woman, it's a good thing that I have reflexes or else you'll hit yourself in the pooper."

"And he cares for my wellbeing too, how perfect!"

"God you're not listening aren't you!?"

Kongou's sudden action is soon stopped when Naruto thought that he has enough of chatting for the moment. He says his goodbyes to the energetic girl, seeing that he plans on doing some self exploring while she is needed somewhere else as a part of her duty. Really though, he never thought that he would meet someone or a robot-girl like Kongou who is energetic, straightforward, cheerful and bright all around. Maybe he should start setting some limitations when talking to her, otherwise it would just get plain annoying.

He has no problem with cheerful people, in fact, he finds cheerful people to be easy to talk and get to know to as well as making friends with; seeing that used to be such a jolly lad himself during the days. Of course, he cannot always get to meet cheerful people like Kongou, somewhere in the near future—or probably soon later—he is bound to meet someone with at least the same kind of attitude as a certain black haired avenger during his time, he just hopes that it will not be soon and that he might have the patience to deal with them.

But, again, meeting people has always been something he enjoys; whether they are friendly, potential enemies, or a downright jerk straight from the bones. Living for thousands of years watching people come and go into and away from his life is not something he enjoys... in fact, he sometimes tend to ignore the fact that he has lived for this long. He could get used to loneliness, but as a human, it will get to him eventually. If he is talking about company in bed, then he could easily provide himself with someone to warm and fill the empty space next to him. However, when it comes to him as a person; sex is just not the answer.

Thinking to himself has brought him faraway from where he was at before. Right now, he is walking silently down a road towards the pier to take a good look at the sight of the morning sea. The smell of salt and sand is incredibly potent, and with it, the smell or rusting materials such as metals follows. He is standing at the edge of the pier, with the intention of doing nothing aside from dozing off and wasting his time. He cannot do anything anyway, given the situation he is in.

'_I could blow this place up and make it look as if a clown and a golden retriever did it...' _but at this point, there is simply no reason to do so. Why? Because of the Ship Girls. Yes, these Ship Girls. They are an interesting anomaly, a very, very, very interesting bunch. Throughout his whole walk here, he feels the exact same sensation of energy radiating from these Ship Girls; which made him even more curious in the first place. Normally, energy is meant to be different when it comes to possession; note that the term energy here is not refered to as the necessity which is needed in order for work to be done, but the energy he is refering right now is actually the type of property, invisible and sensible force that is different in each and every individual.

Human energies are different from one another, but they all exert the same amount of force. However, these Ship Girls, they have the same type of energy, yet they also exert the same amount of force as each other; akin to that of a human's. Just... what are these girls made off... that is the million dollar question, just what are these girls made off? Obviously, normal advanced machinery and modern science could not just create these new yet identical type of energy... so, there must be a source. Something, or someone. This is li fike a rubics cube, the more he tries to fiddle with it, the harder and more complicated it gets.

Naruto's eyes stare deep into the surface of the ocean's water, they seem to be giving off the similar shade of blue. If only the sky is blue enough...

"If only the sky is blue enough..." he actually says it.

"Wow, you are so brave to say something embarrassing like that."

Not expecting someone to reply to him, Naruto quickly turns his head towards the source of the voice. He blinks a few times, trying to take in the fact that someone had somehow managed to slip under his radar. Said someone is definitely one of the many Ship Girls in this naval base, there is no mistaking it for the uniform she wears. She wears and combination of black, white and red sailor uniform, complete with the skirt, tie and everything. Her hair is done in side braid which is laid on top of her left shoulder, and there are two eyecatching twin 'flaps' on the side of her head; and upon further inspection, those are her hair. Her face is soft, not cheerful and bright like Kongou's; she almost looks sad and troubled, but is currently doing everything in her power to stop it from showing. She is what one would call a pensive beauty. She has a pair of fingerless gloves wrapping both of her palms, and he has just noticed that the color of her eyes are indeed blue.

With an almost sad and melancholic smile, she stands neatly with both arms on her back. She seems to be waiting for him to reply, something very weird. Normally, you do not just comment on a person's pointless muttering in the first place. But since she is already here, why not humor her?

"Embarrassing? I say it's true." Naruto swiftly and smoothly counters.

"Oh really? Why?"

'_This girl...'_ taking a deep breath, he calms himself down before answering. "From where I came from, the sky used to be blue. So blue, in fact, that you could easily spot even the smallest bit of clouds floating."

Her expression does not change, in fact, it might as well be even more... melancholic. "Is that so... I see." She nods to herself for some reason. She takes a small step forward towards him, doing a curt and small bow. "My name is Shigure and you must be Uzumaki Naruto-san, right?"

"How did you know?"

She takes a moment to suppress a giggle. "I saw your interaction with Kongou-san earlier. That and the rumors of a handsome blonde man is spreading quickly like wild fire throughout the whole base." She tilts her head, her smile become wry. "I cannot say that they are mistaken."

The blonde immortal rubs the back of his head. "Heh, thanks."

"You're welcome." Shigure then adopts a thinking expression. "If you don't mind me asking, are you really a foreigner? You speak Japanese really well though..."

Naruto hums in thought, thinking of a way to explain this sort of thing to Shigure. "Well... to tell you the truth, I don't know myself. I was an orphan ever since I knew it and I've been speaking Japanese the same way. But I've been to a lot of countries, since it's a part of my job really. Searching for inspirations, learning new stuffs and all that."

Shigure steps closer to him. "Wow, must be an interesting job you have there." She says. "Say, what is your job anyway?"

"I'm an author." Naruto reveals. Then, he has an uneasy look on his face. "I'm not sure if you've read any of my books before, though."

"What is it called?" Shigure asks with interest and curiousity. The fact that he is an author alone is interesting, because this is the first time she has ever met an author.

"It's called Icha Icha: Love Tactics, or Make Out series informally." He confesses with a small laughter. _'Don't ask what it's about, don't ask what it's about, don't ask what it's about...'_

"Seems interesting, what is it about?"

'_...Fuck.'_ coughing to his fist, Naruto groggily starts. "W – Well, it's a complicated and dramatic love story which involves a couple doing things a couple does." His face fell, as if he had given up trying to make up excuses for his story. "Basically, it's erotica."

Now knowing what he writes, Shigure is not expecting the answer to be erotica. Her face develops a red hue, dusting her cheeks red with a soft and reddish glow. The 'flaps' on the side of her head also reacted by drooping slightly, probably in surprise. "W – Wow... I... I didn't think..." Shigure raises her hands to her cheeks, desperately trying to hide the increasingly growing redness that is invading her face.

Naruto steps forward, an awkward look on his face. "To tell you the truth, the stories that I wrote were based by my godfather's. All of the Icha Icha Tactics series are all based on my godfather's work, I'm just here to spread it to the world." He tries to reason with her, and it seems that it is working. Shigure slowly lowers her hands from her cheeks, they soon return to their normal state, growing red no longer. Seeing this eases him out, somehow. "I picked up writing as a hobby, so why not do it as a job? The pay is nice, but the work sucks. Getting stuck with a storyboard is just pain in the ass."

Shigure giggles at hearing his choice of words. She then remembers what people has been saying about him, about him being found near the crash site of a plane who had just exploded and also a part of its passenger. "Is it true that you survived a plane explosion?" her question brings the man on paying attention to her. "They said that you were found on the debris of the plane, is it true?"

Naruto nods without hesitation, confirming Shigure's question. "Yup. It's all true." There is really no point in lying or anything, because it seems that all of the Ship Girls here now knows how he was found.

"How did you manage to survive?" seeing that this question is completely expected, Naruto has no problem on answering it.

"Tell me, do you believe in luck?" Naruto asks. A small sea breeze sweeps past them, basking them in a warm yet cool sensation. His stance is relaxed and calm. For Shigure, it is as if he is ready to answer her question before she even ask.

"I... I won't say that I don't believe it, but, it happens." She has seen it happen to her fellow Ship Girls during sorties. Sometimes, their sorties turned out to be bad, so bad where most of the fleet suffered from damages ranging from heavy to even critical. However, there will always be selective fews who will not be nicked, or even touched by any attacks at all. They make it as if they are blessed with great luck from the God of luck Himself. Even when the odds are low, some of them managed to show that luck does indeed happen and exist, but still, she is debating on the fact whether luck happens normally or the fact that it will only come when someone least expected it.

"There you have it. I got lucky; that's all there is to it. No more, no less." He needs to be careful. He does not want to sound like he is covering something up, there is no need for more people to be suspicious of who he is. He knows that there are some, and a certain twintailed girl comes to mind.

Shigure finds it hard to believe that someone would be lucky, so lucky enough to survive from a plane exploding in midflight without suffering any serious wounds. He should be covered in burns and nasty aftermaths, but he is still standing as if nothing happened. She knows that he is covering something up, but there is no use of her trying to pressure him on getting him to fess up; besides, if the admiral approves of him being here, then there is no mistake.

Suddenly, while Shigure is in the middle of thinking to herself, she hears a loud rumbling noise coming from the blonde next to her. She is snapped from her own thoughts when she faced the sheepish looking blonde who is currently patting his stomach with a wry grin on his face. "Ehe... do you mind if we, uh, get some lunch while we talk?"

Shortly later, the have arrived in the mess hall.

For a mess hall, the place is pretty big, in fact, the place is a building of its own. Since it is currently time for breakfast, the place is crowded with people and by people, he means both humans and Ship Girls. The more he pays attention, the easier it is to distinguish between the girls and normal humans. The seats here are all quickly filled, but it is safe to say that there are some left enough for the both of them. Shigure goes ahead while she secures a place for him and herself, while she lets Naruto to browse any foods first while she will get hers later.

"Why don't I get your order along with mine?"

Is what he says, so she agrees.

Naruto is currently waiting in line, in a line where people are still giving him curious glances and stares. He tries his best to not react by the stares they are giving him, but it is starting to get to him whether he likes it or not. What is more is that he is waiting in line, so he has no other option other than to stand and endure all the stares people are giving him. He decides to not pay attention to the stares by focusing on something else entirely, like the menu. Shigure said that she wants the A breakfast set, as for him, he will stick on getting what is the cheapest thing on the menu.

After waiting, coupled by the curious staring from the people around him, for what seems to be minutes; he finally gets his chance of ordering his food and also Shigure's. "Uh, I'll have the breakfast set A and also... one miso ramen."

"You're new here?" the man in charge of the food asks.

"Yeah, you can say that." Naruto replies with an awkward laugh. _'Well, I am new here, but probably not in the way you expect.'_ After waiting a while, the man returns with a tray full of dishes and bowls. It seems that the breakfast set A is a plate of fried rice with rolled eggs as side dish, he also gets two cups of green tea. His ramen is still steaming hot, so he needs to be careful.

As he makes his way towards his and Shigure's table, he notices that there Shigure is currently accompanied by several other girls; obviously Ship Girls. The Destroyer with the cow lick sticking out from her head notices the blonde male approachin, she immediately reacts by standing up from her seat and waves her hand in an 'over here' manner.

Seeing her, Naruto is conflicted on whether he should drop by and give Shigure her meal and leaving to find another place for himself afterwards, or to join her and company instead. But look at that smile of hers, he cannot just leave after seeing that.

"Ah, Naruto-san. Let me introduce you." Shigure wastes no time in introducing him to her company. "This is my sister, the eldest one, Shiratsuyu nee-san."

Shiratsuyu is dressed in the same manner as Shigure, complete with the black sailor uniform with the red and white tid bits but minus the gloves. She is standing at least the same height as Shigure, if not a little bit taller. Currently, she is sporting a neutral expression; the corner of her lips twitch upwards to form a small smile. Unlike Shigure who has a long black hair, she is gifted with a short—going down to her shoulders—brown hair done in straight with several strands popping out. Her eyes are amber colored gleaming brightly and cheerfully, completely different to the solemn and sympathetic ones belonging to Shigure.

To his surprise, Shiratsuyu suddenly bolts forward; snatching the tray from his hands carefully but efficiently. "C'mon! Or else the food'll get cold and you can't have the first hot bite!" the enthusiastic Destroyer sets the tray on the table, her face looking so satisfied for some odd reason.

Naruto blinks. _'Well... that was unexpected.'_ But it is not like he is complaining.

"This one is Samidare-chan, she is one of my younger sisters." Shigure introduces him to another girl within the group, the only one who shies away as he lands his gaze on her.

Surprisingly, she strikes him as a person who will do the opposite of what she is doing currently. However, he is proven wrong. Samidare is dressed in a different manner as both Shigure and Shiratsuyu, she instead sports a sleeveless white sailor uniform with a dark navy blue tie as well as collar with similar color. She has a pair of long gloves that goes past her elbows, the gloves are dominated with the same dark navy blue color but a smaller portion of it is colored white with golden linings as designs. Her skirt is white in color to match her top, she wears a pair of thigh highs, definitely leaning toward the zettai ryouki region there, as well as a pair of unique looking high heeled shoes. Her hair resembles the gleaming blue ocean in the morning, the top is darker in color but fainter as it descends.

"H – Hello..." she greets the blonde stranger shyly.

Naruto waves back with a friendly smile in return.

"Hey Shigure, I'm back are you sure you don't wan—" turning around, Naruto is greeted by the sight of another Samidare carrying a tray full of food. She is wearing the exact same uniform that Samidare is wearing, with the exception of the green ball shaped ornaments fixed on her skirt—with Samidare's being blue in color—and the color of her hair being darker and shorter, tied to a twin pigtails that goes down the front of her shoulders. Her face does not help, it is as if she is Samidare's clone. However, unlike Samidare who shies away when seeing him, this one glares at him suspiciously. "Who're you?"

'_W – Whoa... this girl got some fuse on her...'_ Merely sporting a friendly smile, Naruto waves in return to her suspicious glaring. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I'm the guy that some of your friends found during their mission."

The twin of Samidare stares at him for a few more seconds, giving him her expression of distrust as well as a scrutinizing look. She leers away, slowly but silently. Shigure watches the interaction between her youngest sister and the blonde, she cannot help but laugh awkwardly at how the two briefly interact. Clearing her throat, Shigure then gestures to the newcomer. "This is Suzukaze, she is the youngest sister."

Naruto simply stares, blinkingly. He then allows himself to sit next to Shiratsuyu, with Samidare shying away from him as she takes her place close to Shigure and Suzukaze. To be honest, it is going to get so awkward if Shigure does not start a conversation of some sort. Maybe he should just pull a Kakashi and eat his ramen at lightning speed without the girls noticing. The second oldest with the cow lick on her head as well as the twin flaps on the sides, breaks her chopsticks apart before muttering 'itadakimasu' to herself. Before she digs into her food, she notices the way the blonde is looking at his food; his blue eyes seemingly to have escaped to a land of sorrows. His eyes have somehow lost their original accepting and joyous gleam, only to be replaced by a dull yet soft tint of calmness mixed with sorrow.

She has never seen someone making those kinds of eyes before, but the smile he has on his face betrays him. She feels compelled to ask the man, but decides not to. She sees him as he dips his chopsticks into the ramen bowl, touching the surface of his broth causing ripples to appear and go. His expression changes instantly the moment he does this. Those sad and sorrowful eyes transform into that of a cheerful one as he consumes his food.

"N... Naruto-san?"

Stopping whatever action he is doing at the moment, Naruto takes a moment to readjust his vision so that he could see Shigure. "Ywesh?" He asks through a mouthful of noodles. He swallows whatever food he has in his mouth before trying again. "Yes, what is it?"

Shigure gives him an awkward smile, one that spells nervousness. "C... Can I have some of your ramen?"

"Eh?" this brief response of surprise did not just come from Naruto only. The other three Ship Girls on the table utters the same exact thing and at the same exact moment.

"W – What are you say – saying Shigure!" Suzukaze is the first one to burst in response. "You can't just ask some stranger for their food! And you, who says that you could eat here?" She immediately glares at him, as if he is the one responsible for Shigure asking him for food.

"Shigure... that's... um..." Samidare is clueless on what to say to her sister, she is conflicted on being shy but feeling the need to comment at the same time.

"H – Hey Shigure!" Shiratsuyu exclaims, her face tinged with a little bit of red. "Isn't that a bit... eh... you know...?"

Naruto blinks a few times, maybe three or four. He then shrugs, lifting his chopsticks with noodle strands on it. "Sure, here." Shigure leans in so that she could reach the chopsticks that he is reaching toward her, and once she is in reach, she opens her mouth to let the noodles into her mouth. "It's good isn't it?" the blonde asks with a smile.

Shigure takes a moment to swallow, before smiling in return. "Um, it is. No wonder you look so happy when eating it."

Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly, lowering it just a little bit before lifting it back up. He dips the chopsticks into the bowl once again and lets it stay there. The blonde perches his chin on his knuckle, letting his elbows support the weight of his head. "What can I say? It's the first real food that I've ever eaten." He says. "Being an orphan who lives outside of an orphanage, I can't choose what I'll eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I eat whatever bits I could find, back then, even a loaf of bread meant heaven to me." He let out a sigh of nostalgia. "It was only through pure coincidence when I met a family of chefs, ramen chefs. They were the kindest bunch of folks I've ever met as a kid, they introduced me to ramen and ever since then, it's been my one and only favorite food." He then realizes that he has just sprouting off tales. "Haha, sorry for getting sidetracked there... look at me, bickering."

"That's... that's really sad..." Shigure whispers silently, but no matter how silent she tries to make it, her sisters are still capable of hearing it.

The blonde shrugs, the smile on his face not losing their potency of shining bright. "Not really. I never think of my childhood as a 'sad' one. I just think that I was fortunate enough to have experienced what other children could not and that is to live independently at a young age." He then lets one of his hands rest on the table, leaving him only one hand to lean on. "I never see things as 'sad' or 'unfortunate'. I like to know that I'm seeing things for what they should be, not for what they are."

Hiding her face by bowing her head low, Samidare notices the increasing redness that is spreading on her face. Suzukaze is merely silent and quiet, not bothering to say anything. Shiratsuyu is gaping, but she closes her mouth slowly while staring at the blonde at the same time. Naruto coughs into his fist, deciding to take the conversation elsewhere. "So, is there anything else you want from me, Shigure?"

Surprisingly, Shigure nods. "Just one." Her face then becomes extremely red, like, tomato red. "C – Can you show me one of your b – books, i – if you have them with you..."

Naruto is taken aback. He is seriously not expecting this. While it is normal for people to question him about his books, it is not normal when people request him for his books. Normally, they will have to go to the bookstore and buy, but Shigure here is asking it to himself directly; implying that she has the thought that he might still have whatever means to retrieve his books.

"I'll see what I can do. The admiral probably won't mind if I ask her to grab a few things from the city, for both myself and you. Besides, if you want to read them, you can always ask me. I could always tell you how it goes, I am the writer after all." He winks teasingly at the black haired Destroyer, before laughing to himself at seeing her increasingly embarrassed reaction.

"Eh... I'm, that's a bit..."

The blonde simply laughs harder.

Soon later, the Destroyers from the Shiratsuyu-class finishes their food. Naruto finished his sometime when the girls finished their, and since it happens that way, they decide to exit at the same time. Now, the five of them are walking the road of the naval district with different destinations. The girls are going to the main building while he decides to wander off the district a bit more. They say their goodbyes, well at least most of them.

'_I swear, tsunderes are just so... graaah but they're so cute.' _Ah, such is the mystery of life.

The blonde stranger still finds himself hungry for some strange reason, well no one can blame him really, he did not eat anything for yesterday after all. But he figured out that if he is going to eat, he will be needing money. And what better way to acquire some other than using Kamui? Ah… Kamui… thank the Sage for having descendants developing this technique. Despite having an infinite pocket dimension at his beck and call, he really does not have much stored in there. Just money, extra clothes, some extra kunais and a rubber chicken for some strange reason.

It would be a bother to return back to the mess hall to grab another bite, even if he could just teleport there he is not going to get a weird look from the cafeteria guy for coming there twice. Which is why…

Then, it dawned upon him.

There are no more eating places nearby, at least not if he wants to go back to the mess hall. Looking around, he realizes how stupid he is. So, he will just spend time wandering around before returning back to the house to rest. He considers 'wandering around' as a part of his daily activity now, at least until the admiral in charge has some good news for him. He could, by all means, Hiraishin to Tokyo and grab a few useful things from an apartment he owns there. However, there is a problem. He must have a clone to replace his place in here, but there is no guarantee that his clone will last with him meeting all these strangers. The most possible scenario is that when his clone takes over his absence here, it will accidentally crash and dispel itself, resulting in a major panic in the base.

Or, he could go the other way around: he can send his clones out there to the city and take some things from his apartment. That might seem to be a good idea. "Goddammit me you're so smart." Walking to a secluded location, read: behind a tree, Naruto creates a clone. And without telling the clone what to do, it disappears in a flash of gold.

The blonde haired man steps out from his 'secluded area' and resumes his walk for the day.

"A – Ah, it's Naruto-san!"

"Oh Inazuma, how are you?"

The brown haired Destroyer class blushes when she sees the friendly blonde waves his arm at her. The two approach each other, a rather odd sight really. Him, appearing as full grown man and Inazuma who is like a child when compared to him…

"I – I'm fine nanodesu, what about you Naruto-san?"

"Me? I'm fine, I'm fine. I got a good night sleep, had a breakfast and I got to meet some of the other ship girls." He says with a smile.

"Ah is that so, nanodesu? That is good then." Inazuma shyly returns the blonde's smile with her own. "So, who did you met Naruto-san?"

"Hm… lessee… I met that noisy English speaking girl; I think Kongou's her name? Then I met Shigure and some of her sisters, Samidare, Shiratsuyu and Suzukaze."

"So you've met Kongou-san and some of the Shiratsuyu sisters?"

"Shiratsuyu sisters…? What do you mean?"

"W – Well, we have what you call sisters. Me myself, I am one of the Akatsuki sisters. Our eldest sister is the nameship for the rest of her class, but that doesn't mean being the eldest means that they act like one… hehehe…" Inazuma's eldest sister comes to mind. "In Shigure-san's case, Shiratsuyu-san is the eldest sister."

"Eh… is that so… I'll keep that in mind then." He says. "So, back to you Inazuma, are you doing anything for the day?"

"M – Me?" the girl is taken by surprise when the man asks this particular question. Her face goes beet red and she is stuttering uncontrollably. "I – I eh… I…"

Laughing lightly, Naruto then asks her again. "Are you free for the day?"

"I – I don't have anything to do in particular but… my ship sisters are planning to have a treat in Mamiya-san's café." Then, the Destroyer's face lights up. "Ah! I know, why don't you come with us too Naruto-san?"

"Really? Is that fine? I don't really want to impose or anything…"

The brown haired Destroyer shakes her head. "No you won't nanodesu. In fact, I think that it'll be a great thing to introduce the rest of my sisters to you, nanodesu."

"Hmm…" the blonde makes a thinking face, scratching the bottom of his chin for effect. "Sure, why not? At what time will you and your sisters be there?"

"S – Somewhere around eleven, nanodesu."

"Then I'll be there, believe it!" he jabs his chest with one thumb, his teeth glinting underneath the sun. _'Oh God I did not just do that.'_

**Pichuun~**

"Y – Yes nanodesu!"

Flag 1: Inazuma-just kidding.

Watching Inazuma breaks down into a blushing and mumbling mess is growing to be fun on him, whether that is healthy or not, he does not care. There are adorable things in this world, and a blushing and mumbling Inazuma is one of them. Mentally, the blonde is checking himself if he has stepped over the lolicon line, thankfully, he barely touches it.

"Then, I'll see you later Inazuma!" the blonde waves his goodbyes before leaving the brown haired girl to wander off on his own.

After his coincidental meeting with the brown haired Destroyer, Naruto happily walks the district searching for more people to interact with. He has been meeting people these past few hours so why not spend the day meeting people and get acquainted with them? Even though it is only his second day here, the people that he met are an interesting bunch. The energetic and straightforward Kongou, the pensive yet all smiling Shigure and the utterly adorable Inazuma, these three are unique and different, yet there is something inside of them that burns just as the same as each other. No, it is not the unknown energy that these Ship Girls have, it's their determination.

As someone who has lived a very long life, Naruto knows determination when he sees one. These girls have determination alright, but for what and why? If he pieces things to things, then these girls are 'created' to defeat the enemy that they speak of, what's the name he can't remember. However, one thing is clear, it would be such a waste if their determination exist only for the sole purpose of defeating their enemies. Why, because when their enemies are defeated, what other purpose to these girls have?

The mere thought of it all brings a frown to his face. He firmly believes that one should live their life their fullest, enjoying them within the boundaries of moral and conscience. The thought of these girls being… shut down or whatever after their purpose has been fulfilled saddens him. Really, he has lived a long life, he has witnessed a lot of things; but it seems that things like this still exist even as time progresses.

"Oh well, can't do anything about that just yet." With a stupid grin on his face, and his hands scratching the back of his head, Naruto assumes his most naruto-ish pose. He then walks away, returning back to his temporary living residence to wait for his promised lunch-date with Inazuma and her sisters.

.

.

.

"Man, I oughta take a shower again."

* * *

**A/N: Well, the second one is here. How is it? Good, nice, bad? Let me know in your reviews. **

**And as well always, have a nice day/night!**


	3. His interaction

It is now eleven a.m sharp. Naruto, having changed into another t-shirt—similar kind but different color, this time he is wearing white—as well as a new pair of pants. He really need to ask the Admiral's permission to get his things, just for the sake of not complicating himself of explaining how on earth did he manage to get his things without anyone in the base knowing. He will do things the long and complicated way, as long as it will not backfire in the end.

Standing in front of Mamiya-san's cafe, Naruto is eager to keep his promise to Inazuma. While it may seem weird in a way, since he was basically asked by a personification of a warship compressed to appear as a ten year old girl to have a lunch date with her and her sisters. Yup, that's not normal, and he does not think that it's healthy too... for his health. However, who watches over their health anyway in this time and age? People get fat every day, everytime and every hour; so he'll overlook this situation and just go along with the flow.

With the way things are, he cannot help to not relax and enjoy the current situation he is in. Sure, the most possible reaction and course of action that any normal people would take is to demand release from the base; but he is not just some normal people so he will manage with the way things are at the moment. But really though, things will get boring quickly if he does not find something that he'll enjoy.

"Guh... it's so bright over here..." the blonde mutters to himself as he shields his eyes from the rays of sunlight. Today is a fairly hot day too, now that it's almost noon. Well, a little bit of sunlight is healthy for his skin. His eyes wander from the sky to the scenery in front of him of people walking here and there, mostly ship girls, chatting and laughing as they walk in groups or even by pair. To most men, living in here surrounded by beautiful females is heaven, but not so much for him.

Sure, the girls are beautiful, but if he puts it that way, it's as if there is nothing to do here aside from chasing skirts. Naruto is no Jiraiya, nope. However, he appreciates it whenever he gets the chance to talk to beautiful girls. Beauty is, after all, only in the eyes of the beholder.

"Ah, there he is! Naruto-saaaan!" the sudden call of his name causes the eternal shinobi to turn his head towards the source of the voice. From the distance, Naruto sees Inazuma with three more girls who are standing at the same height as her approaching the café's entrance.

One of them is a girl who stands no taller than Inazuma with long black hair, of course, she looks young; maybe about the same age range as a middle school girl. She wears the similar white and navy blue sailor uniform that Inazuma is wearing, but unlike her sister, she wears a naval cap colored in grey with a stitching of an anchor stitched on the front. Her skin is milky white, making a rather perfect contrast to her long black hair. For someone of her stature, she wears a pair of stockings that might be waaaay too early for someone of her appearance and a pair of weird looking dress shoes. Overall appearance, she looks adorable.

Another is unmistakably Inazuma's twin. She has the same hair color as Inazuma, with it being let loose into a messy short tuff that reaches down to the base of her neck. Unlike the black haired girl and Inazuma, she seems to be radiating an aura of cheerfulness and hyperactivity. He does not want to make it sound like she's touched in the head or something but she has been doing nothing but smiling ever since she got here. Just like Inazuma and the black haired girl, she wears the same type of sailor uniform. For her legs, she's wearing a pair of shoes and thigh high socks.

And the final one is very much different than Inazuma and Inazuma's lookalike. When compared, she looks closer and more similar to the black haired girl. With exceptions of course. She has a long flowing white hair and blue eyes. Other than her counterpart, she looks to be more restrained and silent. Clothing is the same as the others, and she also wears a grey naval cap just like the black haired girl. She is not taller than her sisters; that's for sure. She has been staring at him the moment she arrives him, and Naruto does not have to look at her in secret or anything like that.

"These are my sisters nanodesu." Inazuma started. She gestures to the one with the long black hair. "She is Akatsuki-chan, Akatsuki-chan is the eldest sister nanodesu."

Then she moves on to the one who looks similarly like her. "She is Ikazuchi-chan, nanodesu."

And finally, the white haired silent one. "And lastly is Hibiki-chan."

Naruto stares at the group of sisters for a few moments before settling in for a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you girls, my name is Uzumaki Naruto but you can just call me Naruto. Inazuma's not lying when she said that all of you are beautiful." The blonde bends his hip lightly, so that he could reach and stroke Akatsuki's head through her cap.

"D – Don't rub my head!" Akatsuki bashfully slaps away the man's hand, with a flushed cheek and a cute pout, her glare is too moe to be called angry. "A proper lady does not get her head patted, and I am a proper lady! Hmph!" she pouts.

Naruto could only chuckle with amusement. There is something with these kids that makes him trigger his 'daddy' side. Oh what's that? Someone out there is surprised that he actually knows what it feels like to be a father? Well he will gladly tell them. After living on this earth for sooo freaking long, the idea of having a warm, nice and loving family appears once in a while. However, due to him being immortal, he has to experience each of his losses individually. Akatsuki's complaint is soon resumed when the blonde places his hand on top of her head again, this time grinning.

"Well, a proper lady does not pout like what you're doing right now." The blonde says with a hint of tease. "A lady must be composed at all times, when she finds things that are unpleasant to her, she think of a way around it. Sometimes, a real lady just has to bear with whatever life is throwing at her."

His lecture does not help Akatsuki at all, instead, she is pouting even more now that she learns the truth.

"But don't worry though, I'm sure that when you're older, you'll be fine lady in no time." He gives her head a few more pats before standing up once again. If he were to look a little bit closer, he would see the redness on Akatsuki's face; truly befitting her name.

"Ooh! Ikazuchi wants to be a proper lady too, but Akatsuki-chan always tells me that I'm doing this wrong, I'm doing that wrong…" the Inazuma lookalike banters and rant.

"Ika~zuchi…!" The eldest of the four mutters in an embarrassing state.

Naruto laughs at the scene, they're good sisters alright. There is no mistaking. He then turns to the white haired girl, smiling at her. "What about you, do you want to become a lady too?"

Hibiki is silent for a few moments before answering the man. "Perhaps, but I am still a kid now, it's best for me to enjoy the feeling while it lasts."

Naruto is awestruck, he really is. _'W – Wow… she's unexpectedly mature…'_ he thought. "Anyway, let's grab our lunch, I'm starving."

The small group of five, consisting of four Destroyer class Ship Girls and a blonde stranger who is in for a witness protection program enters the small café establishment. Upon entering, Naruto is surprised to see the café still so full of girls even in the late morning. It looks like Mamiya-san's café is that type of place that keeps on getting people no matter the hour or time. What's even more amazing is the fact that this is only a café, not a restaurant or anything like that. Aside from small meals and drinks, this café only provide sweets and other types of dessert.

After finding a seat for the five of them, and surprisingly, it is Hibiki who starts a conversation. "Naruto…san, is it really true that you are the only survivor of a plane crash?"

Naruto blinks. Is she not supposed to know about that already, if so, then why is she asking? He is about to answer until he sees the seriousness in her eyes. Naruto, in his long and eternal life, has never seen someone with such… recognition, interest and understanding aside from his comrades who have long passed. Especially, when it comes to young looking girls like Hibiki. His eyes flash a look of understanding themselves, getting an idea as to why Hibiki is asking.

"Yeah I am." He answers softly. "In case if you're wondering, there's no one I know in that plane, which makes it easier for me to deal with. Because, let's be honest, I'll be pretty sad to know that out of that many people in that plane and I am the only who survived. But still… it's sad to know that people die… but there was nothing I could do."

'_Bullshit.'_

He bites his lower lip subtly before continuing. "I try not to think about situations like the one I was in, but sometimes… I just can't help it."

"Then… how do you deal with it?" Hibiki asks.

Naruto hums, thinking for a second. "You don't." needless to say, his answer is a shock for the white haired girl. "You don't simply 'deal' with things like these, you can't forget about it no matter how hard you try. You can't change it, it happened and the only option you have left is to move on and, hopefully, not killing yourself slowly over the guilt of being left alive. You just have to remember it, keep that unpleasant memory in the deepest part of your brain, and one day—when you're finally seeing the light yourself—you think, 'damn… so this is what it feels like.' Like that."

A moment of silence pass down the table, the only sound audible from within the group comes from outside the group and that being the sound of the other girls talking and chatting.

"You… surprisingly know a lot about this, Naruto-san…" Hibiki drawls. "It's… surprising."

Instead of giving her a straight answer, Naruto is going to pull a Kakashi and be cryptic as fuck. "Maybe~… but enough chatting around, let's order our food shall we?"

The four sisters agree in unison and begins to order their treat. As usual, Hibiki, Akatsuki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma orders what they usually have and that is a Destroyer sized special ice cream Sunday with extra sweets as toppings. If Naruto were to go with the type of ships, then the Destroyer sized means that it is the smallest serving out of the other types. But no, he is wrong. Well, not entirely. It is the smallest serving but when seeing it, he cannot call it 'small'. The bowl itself is nearly twice the size of his head, a pretty a huge and round thing if he might add. He cannot imagine what the Battleship and Carrier type would be like…

As for himself, he orders a small sized sundae with orange syrup as topping. It might be weird eating a sundae with orange syrup but he could tell the people who'll judge him over a trivial matter to shove their complaints up their pooper. The five enjoys their dessert lunch with a little serving of yokan sweets as side dish, if one sweet isn't enough then you gotta have two of them. They share laughter and experience, Naruto tells them about his job as an author and thankfully, the girls are not sharp enough to ask them what kind of book he writes.

Spending time with Inazuma and her sisters have proven to be a fun thing. They share stories, laughter and even some unpleasant ones like the time where he ate his very first vegetable ramen. After finishing everything on their massive bowls, or cup in Naruto's case, the exit the café.

"Thank you for inviting me, Inazuma. It's really fun." Naruto thanks the Destroyer who suggested the idea of having lunch with her and her sisters.

"I – It's fine, nanodesu… we enjoyed it too, right guys?"

Ikazuchi nods enthusiastically. "Um! Next time, let's go have lunch again! You can always rely on me, Naruto-san!"

The eldest simply huffs, crossing her arms and looking away. "H – Hmph...! It was not bad, it was decent enough to satisfy a lady like me."

'_Damn… this kid's so cute…'_

Hibiki, however, differs when it comes to showing her appreciation. She approaches the blonde, grabs his larger hand and places it on top of her hatless head. Her sisters are curious as to why she is doing this, but it seems like Hibiki does not mind getting her head rubbed. "…Harasho."

'_Eh, Russian…? I thought that she's Japanese…?'_ weird… but it does not matter. The girl looks happy and that is all there is to it. He gives Hibiki's head one last pat before retracting it back. "Well, you girls must be busy right? You're ship girls after all, so I'm sure that you girls have important things to do."

"O – Of course nanodesu!" Inazuma nods. "Then, we will see you later Naruto-san, take care!" as she says that, her three sisters give the blonde their own goodbyes.

Waving his own goodbyes, his smile slowly fades away when the four girls are out of range. His smile returns, but it holds a different feeling than the previous one. How long has it been? Forty years? More, maybe? It has been so long ever since he got to speak with children, well, at least children with a deep yet broader meaning since Inazuma and her sisters are basically artificial humans. Still… an old man like him talking with children is a pretty unusual thing. His memories of his past families are still clear, yes, but he would be lying if he says he doesn't at least try to forget about them.

No matter how hard he tries, the pain of watching people close to you die or outliving you is the most painful form of pain he could remember. Madara's Amaterasu is nothing compared to this particular feeling.

Though it may not hurt him physically, it hurts him where it hurts the most. And he's not talking about his heart here. To see his families die before his very eyes, to hear them whisper goodbye on their deathbed and to see them cry for the very last time is a form of torture that he could never avoid. No matter how hard he tries, one point in the future, he will have to face that very same experience and deal with the same pain all over again. Even though he is strong, his mind is broken**(1)**. The first few times got to him very bad, it came to a point where he would attempt to end his own life but only for it to end in futility. Maybe this eternal life is a form of punishment for him, one way or another.

He hopes from the very bottom of his heart that one day, even if he has to wait for an eternity again for this curse or crude blessing will end. So until that day arrives, he will continue what he does best.

Enduring.

* * *

"Uoooooh!" Naruto yells with glee when he sees a particular building that catches his attention. Before people start to look at him weirdly, he would like to explain a few things. First, it seems that Tsunade's alcohol addiction have somehow managed to manifest itself into him. And second, the only difference is that he has a very high tolerance of alcohol, unlike that hag. So people cannot blame him if he is excited to see a bar conveniently placed somewhere in the district.

Everything about the place basically screams that this place is a bar, a traditional Japanese bar. The building is not that big nor it is small, decent enough to fit a plenty amount of customers. Exterior décor is not that fancy, but it keeps the place looking aesthetic and traditional. There is a medium sized sign that says 'Izumo' in the middle just above the entrance. Obviously, that is the name of the bar.

All giddy and excited, Naruto realizes how stupid he usually gets when he is at this state. Calming himself down, the blonde gradually becomes calmer. _'Oh boy… where have this place been all of my life?'_ well, all of his morning actually… the lunch date with Inazuma and her sisters had consumed about three hours of his time, which makes the time right now 2 O'clock in the evening. Usually, people would go to places like bars and some similar type of places later during the day, but he prefers to be earlier than most people. Besides, the place is lively already even at a time where most bars in the city would call early.

Seeing that there is nothing wrong for a blonde stranger under the base's witness protection program to come in, the blonde stranger who is under the base's witness protection program lets himself into the bar with the intention to have a good drink and also to enjoy the rest of his day away by relaxing.

Without further doubt or ado, he enters the bar. Upon entering, the first thing that comes to mind is how lively and populated this bar is. The bar is filled with people, and he notices that there are a lot of Ship Girls, at least the adult looking ones, who are drinking. He does not know that they could drink. Oh well, who cares. The space is equally divided, with a bar table as well as normal tables and chairs for customers. Even though the place is lively and such, the atmosphere that fills this place is soft and light. He finds himself an empty spot, a stool at the bar's counter with a good view of the bar's interior since it is placed on the corner of the room.

It's a good thing that he is not getting any weird look or stares from the people around him, they're either too drunk to notice or they're aware of him already. Hopefully the former. Naruto is about to doze off until someone takes notice of him, it seems that there is no need for it at all.

"Welcome, how may I be of service to you?"

A very mature, soft spoken and gentle sounding voice reaches his ears. The owner of said voice is a woman dressed in a traditional kimono with the kimono top colored in a thick shade of pink and a dark blue hakama with string suspenders. What makes Naruto enter a state of awe is how serene and peaceful she looks. Her face is unblemished of any flaws, there is not even the very slightest trace of makeup used to beautify her face. Her long black hair is tied into a single ponytail on the back, she is also wearing a white frilled apron over her clothing.

Never mind her clothing, never mind her face. But her smile… if he is any lesser men, or lacking when it comes to experience with women, he'd melt right here and then.

"Ah, good evening." The blonde replies. "I was just walking around the district until I saw this place, I thought that it'd be nice to see what it looks like and… I'm also in the mood for a drink, hehehe." He chuckles awkwardly in the end, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

The woman shares a small laugh with him. "Well, you came at the right time. We still have a lot of sake to enjoy, though I'm not sure whether it will stay that way for the whole day."

"Then it's a good thing that I came at the right time then."

"Indeed. So, what would you like?"

Naruto puts a thought to it. "Hmm… what would you recommend?"

"The sake is our main special, the girls love it, especially the sweet one. Or if you would like to try the stronger one, we have that one too, though it is very strong." She says in a businesslike manner, but not losing its original kindness.

"Then I'll take the strong one, I'm not one for sweet things you see." Naruto confesses. The only one who likes to eat sweet things are girls and kids, he never knew why they like sweet things so much.

"Okay then, would you also like a light meal with that?"

"No thanks, I just had desert with Inazuma."

"Oh," she looks surprised at the mention of Inazuma. "you've met Inazuma-chan?"

"I did, kid was kind enough to let me join her and her sisters on a lunch date over at Mamiya-san's café, and I ate some deserts while I was there so no food for now." Naruto says, explaining a little bit.

"Ah, I see. Then please, let me pour a glass for you right away." as she leaves him be for a moment to grab the liquor and glass, Naruto notices one detail. The woman is radiating the same type of energy as the rest of the Ship Girls, so she is also a Ship Girl huh? Who would've thought. It amazes him to know that even after meeting and interacting with a few of these girls, they still strike him as a normal human being.

Well, that's not including a certain pigtailed girl…

"You! It's you again!"

Speak of the devil…

Zuikaku blinks a few times after her bold and brazen outburst. Everyone's staring at her, causing her face to transform into that of a red tomato. She briskly walks toward the blonde, still having that troubled look on her face and sits down on the stool a space away from where he is sitting. Shakily turning her head towards him, the red faced Carrier is greeted by Naruto's smiling face.

"You… you're mocking me aren't you?" Zuikaku asks in a surprisingly low voice.

"Who, me? No, no I'm not. I'm just enjoying myself for a cup of evening sake that I'm about to receive." As soon as he says that, the bartender returns with a sake jar as well as a cup. "Ah, here it is. Thank you very much… eh… I haven't got your name?"

"Ah, my bad, it seems that I was just too focused on other things… My name is Houshou, and I know that you are Uzumaki Naruto-san, right?"

"I am, but please, call me Naruto. I'm not a fan of formalities when it's directed at me…"

"Ufufu." Houshou allows herself to giggle. "Very well then, Naruto-san."

Zuikaku is watching the two interact with a twitching eyebrow, she then pulls the blonde's collar before he could even reach for the liquor jar and proceeds to stare at him with eyes that speak of murder. "If you dare try anything…" she leaves it hanging.

Naruto, instead of panicking or even getting mad, sighs. He lets himself free of the girl's strong grip by shaking it off, Zuikaku is surprised at the fact that he manages to break free of her grip with ease. "Okay, look, I don't know what you have against me but whatever it is; I don't think that it'll be good if we keep on meeting like this. And besides, it's not like I'm sexually harassing anyone in here!" he says with his arms raised for effects. "I'm not into young girls!"

"What are you talking about? We at least look about your age!" Zuikaku gripes heatedly.

Naruto rolls his eyes comically, an act that annoys the pigtailed girl. "Doesn't mean that you look young you're really young. I'm not offending anyone here, but what I'm trying to say is that I'm not here to fulfill the role as a testosterone filled ape who can't think of anything else aside from trying to get my hands into where it's not supposed to, no; that's not why I'm here. Oh, and yes, I am a lot older than I look."

"Please…! I know you're just messing with me by telling me a lie."

_'This girl…'_ Naruto resists the urge slap himself so hard that he might actually launch himself like a human cannon. "Look, here Zuikaku—"

"Don't call my name that familiarly!" she gripes.

"Okay, fine, Zuikaku-san, all I'm trying to say is why don't we start over a new leaf. If I ever did cause something that has somehow troubled you or offended you then I'm trying to say that I'm very, very sorry. I know that I have this effect that makes girls uneasy whenever I'm around and it seems that you also have no intention to change that. So, the most reasonable and neutral thing to do is for one of us to be the better man… or girl and ditch our pride for a single moment and apologize."

Taken aback, Zuikaku is not expecting to hear the answer coming out from his mouth. She is not expecting that kind of reasoning from him and she is left with the confusion of how to react to his surprisingly mature and well thought of reasoning. Her shoulders slump a little bit, her auditory senses being overcame by the noise that fills the bar.

"…Fine."

Naruto raises an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"I said fine!" Zuikaku blurts out, a little bit embarrassed at the fact that she cannot find a suitable reason to disagree with him. "Geez, wasn't that enough? Do you enjoy being so damn annoying?"

"Wha— I should be the one saying that woman!"

"What do you mean you should be saying that?! Are you calling me annoying?"

"Yes." The blonde replies flippantly. "But enough about that, here," Naruto pours down an empty cup full of liquor for the pigtailed girl. "have a drink with me." He then looks at her weirdly. "You can drink, right?"

Zuikaku looks insulted, but she grabs the cup nonetheless. "Of course I can!" she then proceeds to chug down the liquor empty, slamming the cup back to the bar top. "See, I can drink just—hic!"

_'Aaaand she's out already.'_ Massaging his temples, Naruto holds back a sigh that will show how frustrated he is with this particular girl. "Man… and here I am planning to relax after a day's worth of exploring and sightseeing." He reaches to grab the sake jar, however, he feels that something is different. He peeks inside the jar, only to find it empty. He instantly looks at Zuikaku, who has her face planted on the bar's surface.

"This girl…" this time, he does not even bother to say it mentally. Well, it's not entirely bad he supposed. Having someone to drink with is an experience he did not get to experience often even after a long time of living. The reason for that is mostly because he was not so keen on finding people to socialize with due to his work of being an author. Sure, spending some quality time with the people from the publishing department is nice and all that, but they did not give the same feeling as the one he's feeling right now.

Maybe it's because he is currently sharing a drink with an artificial humanlike person, but hey, he's enjoying it. Besides, Zuikaku makes cute faces when she's drunk. This girl is a bomb alright… especially when she's drunk like this.

"Heeeeey~ what're you dooooiin' not drinkin' huuuuh?" oh God, now she's slurring in her speech. Zuikaku leans toward the blonde, her face flushed and breathe reeks of drunk from the alcohol. She pokes his chest in a drunken manner, making him face palm even harder. Oh wait, he wasn't even face-palming to begin with. "God you're a pusseeeh…"

"Puss—I'll show you who's a pussy… Houshou-san, another jar please!" He calls out with a raised hand.

"Coming right up, oh my, is Zuikaku drunk?"

Naruto shrugs. "She looks drunk, she acts drunk and she smells drunk; so, she's drunk." He says in a deadpanned manner.

Houshou laughs at the way he speaks, all the while placing a fresh jar of liquor in front of him. "Here you go, just make sure that she doesn't drink more of this." She says with a little concern.

"Ah, no promises though…" Naruto grabs the jar, ignoring the cups served along with it. He then proceeds to chug down the entire content of the jar until the very last drop. Drinking has never been a problem because he has a very a high alcohol tolerance. Yes, the stuff is not as sweet as sweets, but it's better than eating too much sweets. "Because I'm not sure if I'm in a position to do that… ugh…"

"Oiii, you can't just finish that alooone," she starts whining for some reason. "Zuikaku wants her sake toooo…! She wants sake too!" and now she's crying, God, can a woman get as troublesome and cute as this?

"Sorry Zuikaku, but no. You're drunk as drunk and I suggest that you do not want to get drunker than drunk." Naruto advises flatly, still amazed at how quick this girl got drunk. Even Tsunade was not this bad, and that's including her gambling habit!

Is she giving him a pout? She is giving him a pout! "Then fine! Until Naruto gives Zuikaku her sake, she'll cling to him whether he likes it or nwooot! Pompf!" she clings to him, like, for real. She manages to straddle his waist with both of her arms, clinging into it as if he's some sort of pillow. She rests her chin on his shoulders, ultimately brushing his cheeks.

"Oi! Let go of me will ya'?" He tries to let himself off but damn, this girl got a good grip. He tries for a few more seconds before giving up. Well, so much for not attracting too much attention, but it's not like it'll be him who'll regret it later. "You know what, I don't care just… just… let me drink, at least."

Let him tell the single or even taken guys out there; you definitely do not want to be in his shoes right now.

Having a drunk girl clinging on you, all wasted and slurring and acting as if she has a second personality is not something to be considered lucky. The embarrassment and the sheer amount of attention this girl is giving him are just… so bad. If he is younger, the only thing he knows what to do is to dig a hole so deep and stay in there for the rest of his life; man, he was such an idiot, but awesome nonetheless.

"Is Zuikaku giving you a hard time, Naruto-san?" Houshou has to admit, even she is finding this scene amusing.

Naruto smiles wryly, filling his cup with another refill of sake. "Well, at least she's not biting me or any—OW! SHE BIT ME!"

Houshou continues smiling. Feeling sorry for the man, she decides that it's time to put an end to this. "Usually, Zuikaku comes here with her sister, Shoukaku."

At that, Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Shoukaku… oh, she's a white haired girl, yeah?"

Houshou is surprised again by the blonde's recognition to familiar names. "Yes she is, have you met her before too?"

"Well… yes I did meet her but I never actually got a chance to talk to her or anything." Then something clicked inside his head, something similar to what he would call a 'good idea'. "Do you know where her sister usually hangs out?"

"Hm… she is usually practicing in the archery yard during this hour, which is why it's unusual to see Zuikaku here since they are always together. But it seems that you've read my mind, bringing her to Shoukaku is probably the most suitable idea."

Naruto snorts good naturedly. "It's the only idea… anyway, archery yard is it? I think I know where it is, so you can leave the job of delivering this drunk-biting girl to her sister." Naruto stands, carrying Zuikaku on his back piggyback style. She is still nibbling on his neck for some odd reason, he's glad that she's not biting him anymore. "See you later Houshou-san!"

"See you later. Ufufu, what an interesting young man." Houshou wonders aloud before returning to her duty to tend the other customers.

* * *

Immediately after exiting the bar, he turns to a secluded place.

Before people start to assume things, let him say that he is not going to do whatever it is that people are probably thinking he'll do. He is simply finding a secluded location to perform Hiraishin to teleport him to the archery yard. If he is not mistaken, the archery yard is somewhere near the pier. So, to the pier it is.

"Hiraishin." Normally, when he performs Hiraishin with a passenger, they would end up complaining about things like the process making them dizzy and all that, but Zuikaku is drunk so… that's good for her? Instantly, as if time is nothing but a mere flicker of light, he reappears somewhere in another secluded location near the pier with Zuikaku still playbiting his neck. Her slob is starting to cover his neck here, something that is not comfortable at all.

"Ugh.. oi, Zuikaku, quit doing that dammit; you're salivating on my neck." His complaint falls on deaf ears as Zuikaku is still drunk and unresponsive. He sighs, there's nothing he could do here.

Taking the walk once again, the blonde tries to ignore the piercing stare that the passerby are giving him and Zuikaku. Is this what Lee and Gai-sensei feel whenever they run across the village with only their arms? Probably no, since they don't have a girl who's drooling on their backs and biting their necks… but really, seeing Zuikaku like this is kind of fun. She's been nothing but tsun-tsun at him ever since she found him at sea, at least in her drunken state, he gets to see a side that he's never seen before on her. That and also this here is a good blackmail material, so no questions asked.

Walking with Zuikaku half unconscious on his back is garnering a lot of attention, yes, but none are approaching him or doing something about it apparently. Honestly speaking, it would be much better if someone is to approach them and ask what's going on; but no, no one did. Looks like he has to leave it to Zuikaku's sister after all.

If his memory serves him right, the archery yard is supposed to be right around where he's at. He knew about the place through his clones, the batch that he sent a day ago to do some scouting. There is also a building, which is no doubt the main building of the practice yard. The blonde looks around, but he can't quite recall where it is. He could just scale a building and have an eagle's eye on things around him but doing that will just gather a lot of attention. Not to mention, what'll he say if Zuikaku wakes up when they're on top of a building with no roof access? Explaining things will be the least of his worry.

So, that leaves him with the only common course of action. Asking for directions.

And by asking, he means walking up to the first person he sees and ask them for directions.

"Ah, excuse me, but can you please help me?"

Two girls turn around simultaneously to face their caller.

Naruto recognizes them as two of the girls who found him right at where his plane crashed. One of them is the ordinary looking girl with braids, and the other one is the overly attached friend who seems to always be by the first girl's side. He still doesn't know their names though, since it has something to do with them not introducing themselves to him.

"Oh, it's blondie." At least she recalls ever meeting him.

"You… what are you—Zuikaku-san?! What have you done to Zuikaku-san?!" the one with the brown hair demands, face consorting to distrust and suspicion.

"Whoa, I didn't do anything to her!" he then looks unsure. "Well, it's more like I got her to do to something to herself… but not in any way or form you're thinking of right now." God, he hates misunderstandings!

"Hm? What did you make her do anyway?" the one with the braids asks, seemingly interested in what has caused the Carrier girl to nibble on the blonde's neck.

Naruto laughs awkwardly. "I offered her a drink, but I didn't know that she was going to drink the entire jar empty! You can't blame me there…"

Regardless of how sincere and honest he tries to make his reasoning sound, the other girl is still giving him the eye. She then suddenly harrumphs, losing all the hostility but not the suspicion. "Well, long as you're not doing anything to her…"

"Sheesh… can't I get a break from people suspecting me from doing stupid things?" he wonders aloud so that the two girls could hear.

"It doesn't help if you look stupid yourself."

_'Ouch.'_

The black haired braids girl tries her best to stifle her chuckle, but only to fail as she tries. Her sister slash best friend can really strike where it's hot, and this is one of the many examples. "Heh, that's a good burn right there, Ooichi."

Naruto gives the two a dry look. Now he's getting sidetracked. "Okay, enough with the pointless chatter now. Look, I need your help for directions. Do you two happen to know where the archery yard is?" he asks. "I need to drop this girl here off there."

"The archery yard eh? It's right over there, see that long horizontal building?" black haired with braids points out to a building with the same exact vague description she has just said. "That's it right there."

"That one?" a nod. "Okay, thank you… eh…"

"Name's Kitakami-sama, and this is Ooichi." Kitakami introduces both her and Ooi neutrally.

"Only Kitakami-san gets to call me Ooichi, if you dare…" she leaves it hanging.

The blonde, seeing that he now knows where to go, decides to not interrupt the pair any further; something tells him that Ooi will slit his throat in his sleep if he continues. "Alright, thanks for the directions you two. See ya'." With that said, he leaves the two for the archery yard's main building.

"Hmm… he's not that bad looking, isn't he Ooichi?"

"Wah—!" Ooi looks like as if she had just gotten hit by a torpedo. "That whiskered man! How dare he makes Kitakami-san compliment him?! When I get my hands on him…"

Kitakami just smiles, before walking away with Ooi beside her.

Naruto huffs, he has just reached the building of the archery yard. It is just as Kitakami described it to be, a long horizontal building; there is also a sign that indicates that this building is indeed a part of the archery yard so there is no need for confirmation. Now lies another problem… getting in. He doubts that he's allowed to enter, something about this place just screams private to him. He could just leave Zuikaku out and out cold outside, but that's just too rude. Even if he prides himself as a prankster, doing something like that is just plain low.

Well, he should at least try.

He approaches the front entrance of the building, but a voice halts him in his tracks.

"Stop, what is your business here?"

Turning his back quickly at the not so friendly voice, Naruto is met face to face with a woman who is wearing a similar type of uniform as Zuikaku; they are not exactly the same, but there are similarities. Her face is stoic and cold, kind of like a few people he knew back then. Her deep brown eyes are looking at him with the same amount of suspicion that Ooi has before, but unlike Ooi's, she appears to be serious. Her kimono is colored white, while she wears a blue hakama as her legwear. He can see her stylized sandals as well as the black muneate she has over her chest. Her hair is colored black, done in a hairstyle that is surprisingly simple but unique; a side ponytail.

"I'm here to drop this… girl off my back." He gestures to the now sleeping Zuikaku with a little shrug of a shoulder. "Houshou-san told me that her sister should be here at this hour."

The look on her face shows brief surprise when he mentions Houshou-san's name. "What happened to her?"

"She drank too much, and now, she's like this." He explains lamely.

He then notices the look of disappointment crossing the other girl's face. In fact, she even sighs and does a face palm. "Haah… this is why the 5th Carrier Division are just so…" she leaves it hanging from there, taking a deep breath. Approaching the man, she bows down curtly. "Thank you for taking care of my junior and bringing her here, I am Kaga."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet you." He flashes his friendliest of smile, one that he always uses when greeting new people.

Kaga remains stoic, like a certain Aburame in his time. However, she acknowledges the man's gesture by nodding. "Likewise. As for Zuikaku, please wait a minute while I get sister inside." She excuses herself and enters the building, leaving Naruto and a sleeping Zuikaku still drooling on his back.

"This girl's drooling like a baby…" the back of his shirt is starting to get wet. He lifts Zuikaku up from his back, changing his carry position to that of a princess's carry. "Huh, she's lighter this way…" he wonders to himself as he stares at the girl's drooling and sleeping face.

"…Munya~"

"Mu—pfft!" the blonde snorts, unable to hold it in. "Is this girl rea—mmmphhh!?" sometimes, things happen. And sometimes, there are reasons for that. But now… he learns that Zuikaku is incredibly scary when she is drunk, not at Lee's level, but still scary. With her surprisingly strong strength, she manages to pull his head down to her face level, forcibly bending his back forward. He doesn't scream—well he did scream but her lips won't allow him.

'D – Dammit! She's not letting go!' he can't pull off from her, not unless if he wants to use his super strength.

"Thank you for the wait, Uzumaki-san here is Shouka—"

Naruto dreadfully turns.

.

**SINK**

.

"S – Shoukaku sunk!"

After an explanation and confirmation of Zuikaku's drunken antics, both girls believed him.

Naruto laughs awkwardly, now that he's no longer carrying Zuikaku, he can scratch the back of his head. "I'm just surprised that she's so… _different _when she's drunk. Is she always like that?" he asks.

Shoukaku whimpers, extremely embarrassed at what she and her sister just did. She fainted, which so unlike her and her sister… she kissed the man in front of her! Given that she's drunk, but it is still embarrassing! It's a good thing that Zuikaku is still sleeping, otherwise she'll really try to sink herself.

"I… I'm deeply sorry about my sister Uzumaki-san… it seems that she has caused inconvenience for you again…" the white haired elder sister whispers with a serious intention of being forgiven, her sister.

Kaga raises an eyebrow. "Again?"

"Eh… auuu…." Shoukaku whimpers to herself, while carrying her sister piggyback style.

Naruto waves it off with a laugh. "No worries, no worries. At least she's not like a friend of mine, boy… when he got drunk, even the Special Forces got involved…" he laughs it off as a joke. "Anyway, I'm just here to return her. You don't have to apologize or anything."

Even so, Shoukaku shakes her head. "I…. I insist. If there is something that I could do to repay you please let me know."

Naruto blinks, then his face looks restrained; still smiling, but restrained. He seriously has problems when it comes to people like Shoukaku, unable to be convinced that they are not at fault and that there is no need for retribution or repayment and something like that. Even Kaga is giving him the 'shut up and just accept it' look. Sighing, he is left with no choice.

"Well…" he scratches his cheeks. "If it's not too much, could you convince her to not blame herself too, if she ever comes to that point? It's… wrong if she's blaming herself."

Shoukaku is struck. She is not expecting an answer such as that. He ignores her expression of surprise, continuing his reasoning. "I don't want to make people feel guilty, it's… bad for me. If I ever make people feel guilty, I'll become one heck of a busybody." He confesses with a grin. "Who knows, maybe I'll be the one to make it up to you?" he then notices the time of the day, seeing the sun setting just beyond the horizon. "It's late now, I'll have to return; rules you know?" he winks.

The blonde turns, walking away with his hands raised and waved. "Please tell Zuikaku that she got nothing wrong with me…!" he then disappears into the distance, leaving the girls' vision.

"What a nice man." And _that_ was Kaga.

* * *

Reappearing back inside his temporary house, Naruto then immediately jump upon the sofa. Today was a tiring day, he has to say. With all the encounters… Kongou, Shigure and her sisters, Inazuma and hers and then Zuikaku and hers; there's Kaga too. Oh, he almost forgot Ooi and Kitakami. Each and every one of them are interesting girls, really, really, really interesting. He smothers himself onto the sofa's cushion, letting himself breathe whatever dust is present on the fabric. He changes his position into a seated one, after feeling a change in the air.

His clone appears before him, carrying a scroll; a sealing scroll. This is the clone that he sent out earlier today before he met Inazuma.

"You returned, what took you so long?"

The clone gives his original a disturbed look. "Honestly, you don't want to know… but since you're my original, you'll know about it when I dispel."

Naruto, the original, rolls his eyes. "Fine, is that it?" he refers to the scroll in his clone's hand. His clone throws the scroll over to him, to which he catches with ease and almost no effort.

"Yup, everything's here. From money, clothes—both formal and informal—our old ANBU uniform and some gears." By gears, his clone meant his old ninja gears. Such as kunais, shurikens, more scrolls, wires, explosive tags, and some of his father's specialized Hiraishin kunais. "Oh, I also got a copy of our book; Shigure wants it right?"

Scoffing at the sly smile his clone is giving him, Naruto dismisses him without a single word. He then grimaces as the memory of his clone is transferred to him. "Oh… so that's why he took so long… stupid people, trying to rob a bank old school style in this day and age? What is this, GTA?" he shakes his head in disappointment. Today's crimes are just as stupid as their counterparts, no wonder Japan is a first world country; the level of their criminality is the same as their policy.

There is a reason as to why he ordered his clone to fetch these seemingly important items for him. One, it's to make sure that he is prepared at all times. Two, he can't go outside wearing a shirt all the time; the nights are freezing. And three, even if someone questions him as to where he got the stuff, he could just always tell them that the Admiral has let him fetch them. Speaking of the Admiral… he really needs to check in. His hypnosis on her has worn off, and if she thinks of the right thought, she'll sniff him out immediately. He has no problem re-hypnotizing her or something similar but doing that would just be a waste of time.

It's almost night, maybe it's better if he checks in with the Admiral.

…but before that, he better change into something new. Zuikau's slop is still on his current clothes.

A while later, he reappears in the main building's empty hallway. With the use of Sage Mode, he manages to confirm of the Admiral's presence inside the building. She seems to be doing her paperwork inside her office, he's yet to detect any Ship Girl signatures nearby but he could never be too careful so he must be on high alert. If he remembers correctly, the way to the Admiral's office is the way he's heading toward on now, he could use Sage Mode to confirm, but he'll let pure and honest memorization do the work for him this time.

He ditched the uncomfortable white a little bit too tight shirt for one of his loose fitting long sleeved ones, a simple long sleeved t-shirt with no design or whatsoever. He still wears the same pants, seeing as there is really no reason for him to change them, but the same can't be said for his shoes… he really needs to switch into a different set.

As his memories served him right, he is now standing in front of the Admiral's door. Without hesitation, he lays down three consecutive knocks on the wooden door. He hears a muffled reply coming from inside and he takes it as his permission to enter.

"Hm, Naruto-san? What's wrong?"

Maintaining a sheepish expression, Naruto lowers his head in an apologetic manner. "Ah… I didn't know that you're busy, looks like I'll come back tomorrow…"

"No, no." the Admiral stops him from leaving. She gives him a reassure nod and smile. "I'm just about done with my paperwork and I could use a break now." She stretches her back by leaning on her chair. "So, how may I help you? I trust that you are well?"

"Ah, yes I am." He still needs to be careful. From what he's observing, the effects of the hypnosis has ran off but she haven't seem to have noticed anything different yet. "But… I was thinking, it would be nice to at least know a few things that I am allowed to know."

Her posture changes, from a relaxed one, to a slightly wary one. "Oh, if there is anything you would like to know, please ask. Of course, nothing classified I hope." She says with a laugh.

Naruto laughs along with her. "So I've been wondering… when will I be allowed to return to society? This can't go on forever, right?" true to his assumptions, the Admiral reacts badly.

Her smile fades away, replaced by a frown. She lets out a tired sigh, a look of fatigue crosses her face for a brief moment. "Please take a seat, Naruto-san." He does so. "I take it that you have interacted with some of the girls?"

He is not dumb to not know that she is referring to the Ship Girls. "I have met a few of them, talked with some of them too. Why?"

"Then you know why your presence here is very important."

_'Okay, I was not expecting this.'_

"I have sent a message to the higher brass about your presence as a… witness in our protection. Of course, as you may have expected, they reacted badly. Some of them considered to do terrible things to you, something that I highly disagree with of course. However, we all have come to a conclusion to let you stay here until further notices, but we will also leave you with a role."

"And that is?"

"That is to act as an outside party to the girls. You can say that you are our… test subject, for the better lack of terms…" the Admiral says wryly. "Your interactions with the girls will be monitored not by security cameras or whatever, but by the girls themselves. In fact, I have a group right now on the way to my office to report of their interaction with you. How do I know who have you interacted with… you might thought? Well, that is classified."

Naruto smiles. "I see… so there is no telling when will I ever be allowed out of here?"

"I'm sorry Naruto-san, but as much as it is unfair for you, this is uneasy for me too. We could let you out… but you will always be under strict surveillance from various agencies."

"N – No thanks…" he's not concerned for himself, he's concerned for those who'll be in charge of him. They might end up quitting their job a day or two after being tasked to monitor him.

"If that is so then I'm afraid that I can only say this much, Naruto-san."

"I understand… ah, another thing if you don't mind."

"Hm?"

"Do you mind if I'm allowed to at least grab my old manuscripts and tools? It gets kinda' boring with nothing to do so I figured I'd at least continue my series here."

The Admiral looked a little tad too excited. "That's great! I'll send people to retrieve your belongings in your residence, where do you live?"

"I have an apartment in Tokyo…"

"Okay!"

Well, at least _this_ one is easy.

* * *

**A/N: You guys are like nine year olds addicted to sugar with this story… so many faves, so many follows and so… decent… reviews even at such a short start. I really appreciate the reviews, I really do, and please continue to do so if you like or even hate this story. Cuz' for me, flames are still reviews. **

**Oh, and most of you are disappointed that this story won't be a harem-fic… **

**Let's see, if I can get like, 50 reviews, maybe I'll consider it. **

**And let me tell you, you won't be disappointed if I considered it. **

**Well, that's all I have for today, have a nice day/night!**


	4. Their Company

Waking up in the morning, he hears the sound of wood being knocked repeatedly. Obviously, it is the sound of door being knocked on by someone. The sound of knocking continues, the same four consecutive knocks as the first set. Naruto raises himself from the couch groggily, he didn't bother to sleep on the bed because the sofa is much more comfortable. The perk of being a shinobi, you have to get comfortable sleeping anywhere.

Rubbing his eyes to get rid of the uncomfortable and icky cracks preventing his eyes from opening, once they're cleared, he stands up with a stretch and yawn. "Uwaaah…" he scratches his chin, noticing them to be a little… prickly. He frowns. "Damn… I need to shave huh?" oh well, better do it later, because whoever is on the other side of the door is an impatient one.

"I'm coming, I'm coming…" even after saying that, the knocking does not stop. Reaching the door, he twists open the knob, finally getting to meet the person who ruined his morning. His eyes blink repeatedly the instant he opens the door.

"Eh… good morning, Uzumaki Naruto…san, right?" a girl, shorter than him, Ship Girl, cute. Those four descriptions are enough as it is obvious. Unlike the rest of the shorter girls he met, this one is not dressed in a sailor uniform or something like that. For starters, she is not as short as Shigure and the other Destroyers he'd met, instead she is much taller. Or maybe… she is not a Destroyer? Instead of a sailor uniform, she is dressed in an orange one piece in which the abdomen area is fitted with a black obi. Her clothing itself is unique, the combination of white and orange is enough to make the sleepiness inside of him gone in an instant. As he analyzes her face closer, he notices the metal plated headband fixed to her forehead and the bow on the back of her head.

Her uniform, as he's said, is not a sailor uniform that the Destroyers wear. Her hair is a long color of brown, the front bangs are allowed to freely go over her forehead protector; both swept sideways forming a pattern similar to the letter 'M'. He notices the way she fidgets when she calls out to him, he finds it rather nostalgic, since the only person who would do that was his first wife.

Ruffling his hair for a moment, the blonde then answers in his gruff morning voice. "I am, may I help you?"

"The admiral requires your presence in her office, I'm here to… escort you there…"

'_Presence… escort…'_ a rather unique choice of words there. Well, it's not unique to him since he is used to those words during his younger days, but in this time and age; even with a language as delicate as Japanese, it is still unusual. He's needed, so it must be something important. "One second, let me change into something fresh and wash my face. Oh, please, come in."

"Thank you…"

Naruto smiles a little bit. "Please, don't be shy; this is not my house anyway."

As he allows the girl to step into his temporary housing, he leads her to the living room section of the house. "Wait here, I won't be long." Flashing her one last smile, he steps into the bathroom. Three minutes later, he's done changing and finally stepped out from the bathroom. He changed into a plain orange t-shirt with no distinctive feature or whatsoever; apparently, this is the only clothes available that is outside of his sealing scroll. His lower wear is now a pair of black training trousers with white stripes going down each sides. His hair is a little bit wet since he'd wash it, and his face is a whole lot fresher than before.

"Okay, let's go."

Once outside, Naruto makes sure to lock the door with the keys given to him. He pocketed the keys, before stepping off to the pavement. Wordlessly, the orange wearing girl walks out from the property with Naruto following a few steps behind. Even if it's just a couple of seconds after exiting the house, it feels awkward already, and Naruto hates awkwardness. Catching up to her and walking by her side, he strikes up a conversation.

"So, what's your name? You know mine already." He starts good naturedly, a friendly smile which is always present on his face acts as an increasing factor for the chance of her opening up to him.

Without turning back or looking at him, due to her having to walk, she answers with a soft voice. "My name is Jintsuu…"

"Jintsuu…huh." He tests the name in his mouth. "What a nice name, it's simple and beautiful." Unknown to him, the remark that he says receive a reaction from her.

"Thank you… your name is nice too…"

'_Okay, that was cute.'_ He's a man above all else, and he knows when to spot cute things. "Really, thanks." He really means it. The only three people who find his name nice are Hinata, his mother and father, obviously because they were the ones who gave him his name. "You're the fourth person in my life to ever say that."

"Really…?" interest begins to draw out from Jintsuu eyes, she even turns her head lightly so that she could face him. "Who are they…?"

'Okay… that was not a good idea.' He really needs to learn how to not speak the first thing that comes to his mind. "Well, two of them are obviously my parents—even if I didn't know them that well—I'm sure that they love me and thought that the name 'Naruto' is nice. And the third one is… she's… someone special." He finishes with a smile, a nostalgic one. "It's nice when people say that to me, it makes me feel appreciated. So… thanks."

Jintsuu actually blushed hearing him saying that. She could tell how happy he is just from the smile he is showing her for free. It makes her smile too, what a weird thing. "You're welcome."

They continue their walk to the Admiral's office wordlessly, leaving only a good mood between them.

* * *

"Ah, thank you from bringing him here Jintsuu-chan."

"No problem admiral." The forehead protector wearing Ship Girl gives her commanding officer one last salute before exiting the room.

The Admiral smiles, a somewhat strange one; as if she is interested about one particular thing. "Sorry to call you early in the morning, Naruto-san, but I've called you here to give you the possessions that my people have retrieved from your house in Tokyo. Ah, that also includes your writing materials." She gives him a wink, as well as a smirk which Naruto is all too familiar with.

'She's just too excited for me to continue Icha Icha…' not going to say that aloud, Naruto merely manages a wry smile. "Is that so? Thank you very much admiral." He gives her a salute.

The Admiral laughs it off with a laugh, almost feeling uneasy. "Mah, mah… you don't have to salute me like that; you're not my subordinate after all…"

Naruto actually blushes in embarrassment. 'Dammit… my old shinobi behavior is leaking, I don't know if it's bad or good…' he scratches the back of his head, laughing it off awkwardly and sheepishly. "Hahaha… I guess you're right, sorry." He really needs to be careful. Even after so very long, some habits are just hard to get rid of; like his addiction for ramen for example. But seeing as this place only serves cafeteria ramen, he can restrain himself to not eat the stuff.

"It's fine, it's fine. So, now that you have your materials, what will you do?" the Admiral asks a little bit too excited. From the gleam in her eyes, Naruto could tell that she is looking forward for the next installment of Icha Icha.

Feigning thought, he hums. "Hm… maybe I'll work on it as soon as I can? But it's sad for the rest of my fans, since I am presumed to be dead by all of them; however, there's nothing I can do for now, so I'll just make the manuscript for it first and if things get settled quickly, I'll return on publishing it… and that is if the guys at the publishing company haven't find a replacement for me yet." He laughs good naturedly.

The Admiral sighs, taking her off her hat and placing it on her desk. A somewhat sad smile forms on her face, her eyes looking all too apologetic for Naruto to like. "I'm really sorry Naruto-san… if only I could do something in my power."

"It's fine, you've done enough for me as it is." He reassures her. "I'm fine as I am now, besides, the girls here are all good girls; they're interesting."

"Interesting enough to a point where it's fine for you to stay here?"

"Yup."

"I see… then nothing's wrong." The Admiral's smile grows more sincere and honest, slightly thankful. "You should see your items once you returned to your house, I asked a few people to deliver while we were talking. And Naruto-san do you think… if you're done with your manuscript, may I have a…" she trails off, but her intention is obvious.

Naruto laughs. "Sure, I'll let you read it first before I put it to book."

"Thank you very much, Naruto-san!"

After being allowed to leave by the Admiral, he exits the office with another yet the same problem as yesterday.

And that is boredom.

He knows that he said he'll be doing his manuscript, but there is almost no way for him to start the next installment of Icha Icha without inspiration! An author needs inspiration, it's the only thing that keeps an author writing—aside from the magnificent pay waiting at the end of the date—and working to produce original and new contents! But wait.

He pauses his thinking. Suddenly, he makes his way to the hallway, and he immediately looks out of the window. His flat look transforms to that of a sly smile, a sly and diabolical one. Of course, no, he is not going to do something evil or anything; he has just realized something important.

He is in the middle of a goldmine!

There are girls everywhere! Here, there, over there, that girl is a girl and that one too! There are girls everywhere for him to use as a model for his story, but in order to do that, he will need to get to know them first. Being someone who has been used as a reference material by his godfather during his early days, Naruto is aware of the shame, embarrassment and awkwardness he might bring to these girls; but let no fucks be given by him for the girls.

"Sorry girls… but a man gotta do what a man gotta do." A pen and notebook appears in plume of smoke in his hand, the smile on his face transforming into that of a smirk.

With a new mindset, plan, and strategy in mind; he sets off to gather 'research' material… and no he is not going to peep on the girls while they're taking a bath or anything, God no… he's just going to go around and interact with those he haven't and learn a thing or two about them. He's making a character for his story here people, he needs to get inspiration! Jiraiya might have done it for the view, but he's in it for the content. Content is what makes Icha Icha sell smoothly like flowing water in the market, every single book—though the previous ones belonged to Jiraiya—are filled with magnificent content and details, the kind that make readers so into the series. Sure, 'details' here can be misinterpreted into what Jiraiya might've focused on, but wordings, statements and dialogues are important too.

So without thinking or even regret holding him back, he sets out to get himself acquainted with the girls.

…and try his best to not get beat up like his godfather used to.

Of course, he is not going to do that literally, fuck no.

* * *

"Hmm… this is not a bad place."

Letting himself to sit on the bench underneath the shade of a tree, Naruto makes himself look as inconspicuous as possible; even though it is impossible due to his extravagant nature. However, with all joking intentions aside, he is here with the aim of just… wasting his time doing nothing productive at all. He might look like a loner in the eyes of people who pass him by, but he does not care. There is really nothing for him to do here, aside from waiting for his release and figuring out a new plot for his Icha Icha series… but he rather do the latter later.

This morning is rather relaxed, so peaceful and quiet. It would be bad if something happens to it.

"Hey Naru-ru!"

…aaand it's easy come easy go all over again.

Bracing himself for the one and only BURNING LOVE, Naruto sighs. He leans backward by an inch, missing a launching Kongou who have been aiming at his head all this time. The blur of white and brown goes past him, letting him feel the breeze that comes with it. Seconds later, Kongou is already on his face looking mighty upset.

"Aaw Naru-ru! You're not supposed to dodge my BURNING LOVE!" she whines like a kicked puppy who has been denied its dinner. "But you are just too magnificent that it can't be helped!" she swoons before falling princess style on to his laps.

'_Magnificent? Is this girl for real?'_ apparently, yes she is. Her cowlick, the hair that is magically standing amongst the rest, has transformed its shape into that of a heart. There is no saving this girl, or him for that matter. "Kongou, can you please not disturb me in my morning thinking? I can't concentrate here."

At that, her attention is diverted. "Uhm? You think in the morning… I don't think anybody else aside from Kirishima does that."

'_God, for some reason, I'm feeling sorry for this Kirishima person…'_

"So, what is it Naru-ru? Why are you thinking in the morning, hm?" she leans forward to him, grabbing him by neck while smiling affectionately as if nothing is wrong. Yes, as if she is perfectly normal with sharing this much contact with someone else.

"I was just thinking about what to do to make my stay in the naval base more… interesting to say the least. I know that it's still unclear on whether when will I leave, but just for the heck of it, I want to that I got something special from all of this. I don't know… it's just that sitting around all day with nothing to do is just not my cup of tea, you know?" he says.

Kongou hums, her cowlick twitching a little bit. "Hmm… aha!" she then hears something click deep inside her brain… or if she has any. "That's it Naru-ru! Tea time! Why don't you have tea time with me and my sisters? I can introduce you to them too! Oh I can't wait for you to meet my sisters, they're all good girls and are just so adorable!"

He never knew that Kongou got this kind of side in her… well, it's as expected anyway… this is Kongou over here. "You won't mind?"

The Japan-glish speaking girl looks at him silly. "What do you mean 'you don't mind'? We don't mind at all! In fact, I'll mind if you don't agree with me!" she gets off of him, pointing at him with a determined… finger. "Listen here Naru-ru, in order to have the best experience in something, you have to do everything that it has to offer! However, it's not teatime yet, ne, ne?" she is on his case again, this time latching on his arm as if she's not letting go. "How about we walk around the naval district together, so that I can show you around?"

"Aha… I've got Inazuma-chan to show me around ever since the first day I got here…" his reasonable response has seem to upset her, evident on the pout and drooping of cowlick on Kongou's feature.

"Muuu… you lack delicacy Naru-ru!" she semi scolds, semi tells. "If a lady tells that she is going to accompany you, then you don't have the rights to reject her."

'_Then all of the men in the world are doomed… oh wait, they already are.'_

"You just have to smile and say YES!" she does a little pose with her free arm, doing a 'thumbs up' pose.

Naruto just have to laugh, there's so much similarities between this girl and the old him that it's funny as hell; man, if that jerk Sasuke is here, he'll be laughing too. "Hahaha! Okay then, I'll have teatime with you and your sisters… but now…" he stands from the bench, carrying Kongou along with him to her feet. "But now, let's go wherever you want to go, shall we?" he gives her his hand, and she takes it.

"Ah! Such a gentleman!"

As they talk and chat like what most couples would do, unknown to them, a set of eyes are watching them with lifeless emotion and such dullness in them from afar.

"Naruto-san…"

Shigure's nails dig deeper into the tree bark she's hiding behind from, unknown to her too, she has gained the attention of people around her. Most are giving her a disturbed look due to the amount of creepiness she is radiating from every pore of her skin. Shigure's nail are no longer digging into the tree, they are _inside_ the tree. Her lifeless eyes watch as the blonde and brunette pair walks away with smiles on their faces.

"Naruto-san… why…?"

Back with Naruto, he feels that cold chill running up his back. But being the extremely dense bastard he is, he ignores it.

* * *

"Zuikaku, what's wrong? You look… troubled?"

Zuikaku gives up. She does not know what to do anymore.

Pulling her face from the bar table's surface of Izumo, she gives her sister a shake of her head. "There's nothing Shoukaku-nee…" she then rests her head back on to the top of the bar's surface, sighing really long. "I'm just… fine."

Being the good natured and kind sister Shoukaku is, she knows when her sister is fine or not; and right now, Zuikaku is definitely the latter. Again, as a sister, she knows the reason as to why Zuikaku is feeling so down. A clue if one asks: people remember what happens after their hangover. So yeah, Zuikaku remembers about her drunken antics and interaction with a certain blonde. The white haired elder sister remembers what her sister's first reaction was upon recalling her memories. Zuikaku screamed so loud that she disturbed the whole Carrier dorm to wake up. And then, comes the denial state. And now; this is the guilty stage.

Zuikaku bangs her fist to the bar top, her teeth clenched. "Dammit…! That blonde idiot why didn't he…" she refrains from cursing anymore, due to her being in the presence of her dearest older sister. She consorts to a click of a tongue, looking mighty disappointed in herself. "Why did I even…"

"Z – Zuikaku… it's fine, Naruto-san said himself that it is fine. There is no need for you to be like this…" despite how troubled she is, Shoukaku just has to try to at least calm her sister down. This is normal on some occasions, yes, but this time is a little different. Usually, the same thing would happen with Kaga, but since this time it is with someone they barely know, then the problem is at a whole new level than usual.

"But it was so embarrassing Shoukaku-nee!" Zuikaku hisses cautiously. "It must've been embarrassing to you too didn't it? Oh to think that I was so foolish… urgh…" her hands visibly shake, as well as the reddening on her cheeks are even more obvious. "And that guy… does he have no shame?" Zuikaku does not know what to feel anymore. Annoyed because of her own stupidity, or embarrassed because of her own stupidity. Oh wait, she's feeling both already. "I want to crawl into a hole and hide forever…"

The white haired older sister laughs awkwardly, seriously, it would be much better if Akagi-san is here. She will know what to do with things like this… which makes her feel sad, since she is Zuikaku's older sister, not Akagi. "Well Zuikaku, it's fine to just forget about that you know? Naruto-san knows the circumstances you were in the other day, so there is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Nothing to be ashamed of…!? That guy could be spreading rumors about me acting like a bratty five year old to the whole base by now! Gaaah! I just admitted that I act like a bratty five year old brat when I'm actually drunk!"

Shoukaku sweat drops. Clearing her throat, she tries again. "Maa… maa… we all have our own unique traits Zuikaku and…" this time, it is her turn to be embarrassed. "you know what happens to me when I'm drunk, right?"

At that, Zuikaku's face fell. "W – Whoa… I'm sorry Shoukaku-nee, you don't have to remember _that_ again…"

"I - I was just trying to help!" The older sister says bashfully. "Mooou… Zuikaku… but anyway, I don't think that Naruto-san is that type of person."

"What makes you say that?"

At this, Shoukaku cannot help but smile a little. "You see, he looked very sincere when he handed you to us. It was as if he knew what to deal with the situation already. I'm not trying to say if he has ever dealt with the similar type of situation, but he seemed like the type of person who will act righteously even in the most unfair situation."

"But still… I must at least apologize to him, it's… it's… I – It's not like it's bothering me or anything but I'll just feel bad about it."

'_Isn't that the same thing, little sister dearest?'_ Shoukaku shakes her head, her smile becoming more genuine. "Um, let's do that. I'll accompany you when you're ready."

"You don't have to do it… Shoukaku-nee…" as much as her recent denial goes, there is no denying the guilt in her voice and face. "I'm the one who caused trouble."

If Shoukaku's smile before is of joy, it has transformed into that of sincerity and unconditional love. She places her palm on top of Zuikaku's own, her smile stretched on her face. "And I'm your sister, Zuikaku. Everything that the little sister does is also the big sister's responsibility. I've said it many times, haven't I? If you did something wrong, then I'll always be there to apologize next to you and there is nothing in this world that can stop me from cherishing you more and more each day, not even the Gods themselves."

Zuikaku loves her sister oh so very much, but now, she knows that her love for sister is not as big as her sister's love for her. Regardless, they both are happy; bound by the sisterly bonds that have always united them ever since they knew it. They may not know how is it they were exactly made, but that does not matter. Human or not, both loves each other very much, and there is nothing in the world that can deny their love; their pure sisterly love.

"Shoukaku-nee…!" Zuikaku launches herself to her sister's bosom, shedding tears of joy upon hearing the words that came out from her sister's mouth.

"Z – Zuikaku!" the older sister yelps as the younger one embraces her, unable to do anything other than to slowly succumb back to the embrace. Shoukaku rests her chin on the crown of Zuikaku's head, her own smile, serene.

She is lucky, she is oh so very lucky. No, they are both oh so lucky.

* * *

"Oooh! Look, look, look! Naru-ru, that's a dolphin!"

On second thought, maybe spending time with a British-Japanese tea freak might be a bad idea after all.

Naruto keeps a straight face, not wanting to show his displeasure to Kongou who is oh so very excited to drag him on a boat ride… literally. She tied a rope around her hip, said rope is attached to the boat he is on and she is apparently pulling him like some sort of Jet Ski while going alongside the swimming dolphins near the coastline. Why are dolphins this close to a naval base? He will never know. However, seeing Kongou's smiling face… how could he not enjoy at least zero point nine percent of this moment?

"I know Kongou, you've been showing them to me for the past ten minutes already…" He mutters dryly with a bitter face on. The sun is too bright, and while he does not mind the water, sea water is icky. Yuck.

"Heeeeh? Really? Then let's go somewhere else!" she adopts a thinking expression, if that could be called one. "Ah, I know! Let's go look for whales!"

"Wow, such chances, much brilliance." Yes, that was a flat tone.

"What's wrong Naru-ru, you don't enjoy this?" Kongou skates over to him, the sound of her specially designed shoes cutting the water's surface is the only sound he could hear aside from the flying flock of Albatrosses in the sky.

Naruto notices the look on her face, and he nearly feels guilty about it. "Ah, no, I do enjoy this. But it wouldn't be fair if you're the only one who gets to do all the fun of skiing here and there, yeah?"

"Ah! So that's what you meant… but sorry, normal humans can't do this…"

It's not like he is normal. But, he is not going to say that. "Then hold me."

"Eh?" Kongou just has to make sure that she did not mishear his word. "Hold you? How…?"

Naruto smiles. "Like this." He stands from the boat, reaching for her hand which he has forcibly taken. He maintains a stable grip on her hand, holding it a little tad too tightly, but she does not seem to be hurt in any way. He takes her other hand, and then he steps on the water's surface next to her, surprising her a little bit.

"H – How?!"

Naruto places a thin finger in front of his mouth. He gives her his sensei's trademark eyesmile. "Secret~! But at least like this, I'll be able to sail… er… skate with you."

Kongou, who is still in shock, could only stare at the blonde with her mouth wide open. Naruto sees this and chuckles, holding his stomach with his free hand. "Just know this, if you or I were to let go, I'll fall." That shuts her mouth up, literally. "I don't personally mind getting wet but sea water and sand is icky, so if you would, don't let go of me?"

Kongou blinks a few times. Her face then turns deep red, just realizing the distance and contact they are sharing at the moment. Speaking of moments, Naruto hates to be the one who breaks it, but it seems that today's wind is too nice to be left alone. "Hey Kongou, let's sail shall we?"

"But the others…"

"No, don't worry, they won't see us." Naruto reassures her with a hush. "I've made sure of that." He winks.

The reddening on the Battleship's face intensifies, but all of that is quickly swept away like the white sands of Nirvana when Naruto leads her forward. Before she knows it, they are already skating on the water with Naruto taking the lead. Their pattern of skating is random, unpredictable and unmatched. However, it makes—for the both of them—the most perfect sea waltz. They share laughter and cheers, especially when each would constantly trip and almost fall. Naruto makes sure that she is convinced that he is standing all because of her, not because of the chakra he's gathering on his feet by holding her hands tight. Before they knew it, the sun is already at its peak, and it is getting sunnier. His morning has been spent with Kongou doing sea waltz.

Now, they are both seated in the boat, looking at the far horizon with shoulders barely touching. None has spoken a word to each other, much less attempt to strike a conversation. Each of them carries different thoughts in their mind. For the blonde, it is about his day in this place. Everywhere he goes, there seems to be always new things for him to do and new people to meet. As expected for someone who lives a long and eternal life.

The girl however, is far more complicated than that.

Where the man is calm, the girl is troubled. Where the man is thinking, the girl is fighting. And where the man is relaxed, the girl is on edge. To her, the slightest bit of move from him will startle her. A single word spoken by him will cause her to be speechless. And a single look from him will make her chest throb and cheeks red. These are the differences between the both of them, the differences in feelings and connections.

Kongou is struggling, yes, but she does not know why! There is just this… feeling of throbbing pain in her chest that makes her go all 'fuwah fuwah' and 'gyu gyu' whenever she is around the blonde. She can't look at him in the eyes for some reason, and whenever he looks at her, she goes all quiet. Even as she sits beside him, she is unable to say a word to break the uncomfortable silence between them! God, this is all too confusing!

"Ne, Kongou?"

She nearly jumped. "Y – Y – Yes, Naru-ru?" she asks through stuttering lips.

"Want to head back? It's already evening… and we're still having that teatime, right?"

Ah, yes teatime! That will get her mind off from things! But… it would still be like this with him around! She needs to relocate! "Ah, er, uhm… you see Naru-ru, I don't think that we'll be able to have teatime today…"

"Oh… why not?" there is this sadness in his voice that nearly makes her castrate herself for lying.

"Er… it's because… ah! The admiral! I'll be busy helping the admiral with her work! Yes, that's it!" she stammers carelessly, not even thinking straight. "So we can't have teatime today! How about next time!? That sounds good to you, of course it is, yes, yes!"

"Uh… Kongou?"

"A – Anyway, let's head back okay Naru-ru!? I'll drag you back fast and quick!" she jumps back to the water, before the blonde could say anything, she zooms back to port with full speed on her.

So she left him after all of that.

"Huh, what a weird girl…" he shrugs. "Maybe she's really busy after all?" who knows? Even if he did, who is he to stop her from doing her duties?

He stretches his arms upwards, grunting while doing so. "Man… I really need to work out more… oh yeah, I haven't even had breakfast yet… oh well, it's already evening, might as well go to the bar again." A smile marred its way to his face. The bar is a nice place, and the foods there are pretty nice too. Besides, maybe a few drinks couldn't be so bad... well, not as bad as yesterday at least since he is going to be drinking alone today.

"Well, off to Izumo I go! Ooh! That rhymed!"

* * *

When he thought he will be drinking alone? Yeah, forget about that. He's drinking with two people now.

"Zuikaku." Shoukaku whispers hushedly, only for her sister to hear. "This is your chance!" ditching the bar table for the normal square ones, the three are entering a rather awkward atmosphere. Zuikaku is not saying anything, Naruto is not saying anything and Shoukaku's the only one left with encouraging her sister.

The twintailed girl bites her lower lip, unable to respond to her sister. She grips the edge of the table hard, and her eyes constantly flicker back and forth from the table and to the blonde. She opens her mouth, but every time she does that, it closes again. Slowly and restlessly, she manages to look at the man in the eyes, her lips shaking at what she is about to say.

"I – I… I'm… I'm sorry… for the other day…" then her eye contact with him vanishes.

Finally snapping out from his awkward composure, Naruto laughs. "Hahaha… it's fine, it's fine. Most of us can get a little… different when drunk. I know a friend of mine who destroyed an entire bar just because he's drunk!" his laughter dying down, his gaze relaxes. "You don't have to apologize to me, you did nothing wrong." Lips stretched into a thin fragile smile, gaze averted downwards.

Zuikaku looks at him for a brief moment, taking in the rather offish expression he is showing her. She feels something wrong about him making that sort of face, as if that type of face he is making does not suit him one bit. However, before she could think further, it disappears as quickly as the eye could catch; as if it was never there in the first place.

"Now, now, let's just set that aside ne?" he pours a cup with sake and slides it over to Shoukaku. He grins, lifting a cup of his own. "Let's just drink and enjoy the rest of the day, yeah?"

"H – Hmph! I was going to suggest that anyway!"

"Ah, but, no sake for you Zuikaku."

"Wha—! Grr…!"

He spends the next few hours drinking away his time merrily at the bar, however, unknown to him; a pair of eyes that have been watching him ever since this morning is still dead set on him from the far corner of the room.

Shigure's cowlick falls dead straight, her eyes empty and devoid of any life.

From where he is drinking, Naruto shivers. _'What the hell is this I'm feeling… it's… scary.'_ After living for so long, he actually feels scared. Who or what could have made him feel like this? Looking at the clock available on the wall of the bar, he notices that it is already three. Zuikaku is unconscious, and thankfully she was KO'd by fruit juice only. Shoukaku is taking small sips from her cup, taking it slow.

"So Shoukaku-san, is Zuikaku always like this?" he gestures to the unconscious girl.

The white haired older sister laughs awkwardly while putting her cup down to the table. "I'm afraid yes… she is usually like this whenever we spend time in the bar." She notices the time too. "Oh, it's already this late…"

"Want me to help carry her back?"

"A – Ah, no." Shoukaku stammers, raising her hand lightly. "I wouldn't want to impose on you further… it's… eh…"

Naruto brushes her worries aside by giving her a reassuring smile. "It's fine, I can't let a girl carry another… girl now can I? As a man, I can't allow that." He states with a little bit of cheek in his tone.

That makes the white haired sister blush, taking a brief moment to look away from him. "B – But I shouldn't… I'll trouble you again?"

Knowing what she means by troubling him, he frowns. "Hey now, we just discussed about this. Forget about what happened; it's all fine. I'm not bothered with it, and I know damn well that you shouldn't. Besides, everything is cool between Zuikaku and me." The smile returns. "She's growing on me, you could say… but man, to think that there's more than one girl who'd be as feisty as her…"

"'Her'?" Naruto notices the look of confusion in Shoukaku's face, he had unknowingly hint about his past.

"Ah… yeah, her. She was a friend, and forever will be." He sips his sake. "I drink for her."

At that last statement, Shoukaku realizes that whoever this girl is, she is not here anymore; as in she's dead. "F – Forgive me, I didn't know…"

"Hey, it's fine." Naruto waves it off with a small yet sad chuckle. "She'd probably kick my butt if I ever think of her again; woman was just too persistent to make me move on… but it's sad really, she's a good friend."

"Is that so…?"

"Hn."

.

.

.

"It's getting late isn't it? Let's head back." The man stands from his chair, reaching to hoist Zuikaku on his back. "I just hope that she won't drool on me again, hahaha."

"Ah… you really don't have to…" Shoukaku mutters, looking a reluctant.

But Naruto ignores her by smiling and giving a shake of his head. "Nu uh, I said that it's fine so I'm helping you. Come on, let's go."

The evening quickly turns to night, and it is a time for him to rest.

* * *

**A/N: Ugh… sorry for the lack of updates… I've been sick the whole week, so sick that I need to switch from three hospitals time to time. But I managed, with the help of some of my friends who is supporting me in what I'm doing, get a chapter done for this story. So let's see… we have a deredere Kongou, a tsundere Zuikaku and a yandere Shigure. **

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**.**

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**Perfect.**

**Oh and since I've almost got fifty reviews, but not exactly that or passing that number, I'll put the harem-route thinking for later. Really… I'll have to think about original plot first and then some loving for our lovable idiot. And I apologize for the extremely short chapter, with the limited help I'm getting and the condition I'm in, there's only so much I could do.**

**Well, I'll leave this on a short note and hope that you guys have a nice day/night!**


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